Denard Span, Nationals top Marlins in 10 innings to head into all-star break one game over .500 MIAMI - The first half of the Washington Nationals" season came to end here Sunday afternoon, and the players, coaches and the front office were left with four days to digest the reality: The Nationals are a talented team that nonethless have plenty of ground to make up after months of mediocre play. They avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of the lowly Miami Marlins with a 5-2 win thanks to a 10th-inning offensive explosion. Washington finished a seven-game trip leading into the all-star break with only two victories but the final one helped them avoid falling under .500. For an underperforming team's psyche, it's best to rest with a victory as the last memory. Insight on the Nationals and all the latest news from Post reporters Adam Kilgore and James Wagner. "We're not where we want to be," reliever Tyler Clippard said. We've just been grinding. Everyday it's been a battle. That's part of the baseball season. We expected that. We obviously expected to play better than we have but we're still within arm's distance of where we want to be and it's going to be good to kind of go home, reset the batteries for the break and come back and get the ball rolling on a positive note for the second half. The Nationals" winning rally was keyed by a scuffling player who wanted, perhaps more than anyone, to end the first half of the season on a positive note. Manager Davey Johnson moved Denard Span into the seventh spot of the lineup on Sunday for the first time. With Ian Desmond on first and two outs in the 10th, Span provided the tiebreaking double to center off reliever Steve Cishek. A single by Wilson Ramos and double by pinch-hitter Chad Tracy tacked on two more runs, and the Nationals (48-47) could finally cruise to the first-half finish line. "I couldn't play any worse than I have this first half," said Span, who went 3 for 5 with two RBI in his new spot. I wanted to go out feeling good and go home feeling good. I didn't want to go home feeling more of a stale mood than I'm already in. In some ways, the Nationals have been lucky. Their run differential says they should have a worse record. Injuries have exposed their underperforming depth. Yet they are a reachable six games behind the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves. To reach 90 wins, the plateau historically needed to reach the postseason under the wild-card format, the Nationals would have to go 42-25 in the second half, a .627 winning percentage. The Nationals have dug themselves a hole but not a grave. "I like what I saw [Sunday] and I like this ballclub," Johnson said. We've had a few hiccups with injuries and whatever but I think we're in good shape going into the second half. We're an awfully good ballclub and we just need to play like it. Offense [on Sunday], the way everybody in the lineup swung the bat, that was huge for us. The ongoing frustration with his team's offense was such that Johnson couldn't wait until after the all-star break to overhaul the lineup. He moved down Span. He placed Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon, two of the team's best hitters, atop the lineup because of their high on-base percentages. The drastic changes, for one game at least, helped spark the Nationals.