Sandy Alcantara’s command was shaky for most of his start on Sunday, but his troubles were magnified in the sixth inning. The Miami Marlins’ ace left a sinker over the heart of the plate to the Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner and two batters later sent an elevated sinker Josh Bell’s way.
The Nationals hitters swatted the prime offerings for two-run home runs to break open a tied game. Alcantara’s time on the mound ended two batters later. The Marlins’ chance to end their homestand with a series victory over a division rival became obsolete three innings later.
Final score at loanDepot park: Nationals 5, Marlins 1.
The Marlins (33-44) split the four-game series with the Nationals (37-38), winning 11-2 on Friday and 3-2 on Saturday while dropping the series opener on Friday and losing the finale on Sunday. Miami went 2-4 on the homestand overall after being swept in a two-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Alcantara, who has been one of the Marlins’ steadiest pitchers this year, had one of his rare poor outings of the season Sunday — one that could have been worse than what his final line showed.
Alcantara gave up five runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out three batters over 5 1/3 innings. Of his 90 pitches, 57 were strikes.
He faced six batters in a 19-pitch first inning, a frame that had five balls all thrown at or near the heart of the plate put into play. Alcantara came out of that with just one unearned run allowed on a Josh Harrison RBI single to shallow left field that scored Kyle Schwarber, who reached on a fielding error by third baseman Jon Berti in the shift to lead off the game.
Alcantara rebounded over the next four innings. He allowed three hitters to reach base but the threats were eliminated by a pickoff (Alex Avila in the second), a double play (Schwarber in the third) and a caught stealing (Victor Robles in the fifth).
But Alcantara’s troubles compounded in the sixth. Each of the Nationals’ first five hitters reached base — Schwarber on a four-pitch walk, Turner with his home run to right-center, Juan Soto on an infield single, Bell with his home run to left-center and Harrison on a single to left — before Alcantara got Starlin Castro to ground out. It was Alcantara’s final batter.
It was both the first time Alcantara failed to throw at least six innings and the first time he gave up more than four earned runs in a start since the May 14 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers when he gave up eight earned runs over 1 1/3 innings.
In the seven starts between that Dodgers game and Sunday, Alcantara had a 1.79 ERA over 50 1/3 innings of work. He pitched at least eight innings in four of those seven starts.
The Marlins scored their only run of the game in the first when Jesus Aguilar’s RBI double to left drove in Jazz Chisholm Jr., who led off the inning with a triple.
Chisholm is the first player to hit a leadoff triple in consecutive games since the Colorado Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon did so on April 22-23, 2017, against the San Francisco Giants. He is just the second Marlins player ever to accomplish the feat. Jose Reyes did so on June 11-12, 2012, against the Boston Red Sox.
