One final look at the Miami Marlins’ road trip as they get ready for five home games

Some extra notes, news and takeaways from the Miami Marlins’ six-game roadtrip, which included a two-game series split with the Cleveland Indians and a 3-1 series loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The positives

▪ Jorge Alfaro: The Marlins’ catcher once again produced against his former team, going 6 for 14 (.429) with a home run over his three starts in Philadelphia. For the road trip, Alfaro went 7 for 21 (.333) with two home runs to boost his batting average to .297 on the season.

▪ Lewis Brinson: After getting both games off in Cleveland, Brinson started three of four in Philadelphia and had a more-or-less productive series. The 24-year-old center fielder went 3 for 9 at the plate with a run scored after enduring a 1-for-27 stretch before that. Yes, four of his six outs were strikeouts, but the Phillies series at the very least showed a step forward.

▪ Caleb Smith: It’s hard to understate just how strong of a start Smith is having this season. Through five starts, the 27-year-old left-handed pitcher is 2-0 with a 2.17 ERA and 37 strikeouts to just seven walks over 29 innings of work. That success continued Thursday with a 6-inning performance in which he gave up just one earned run on three hits and struck out eight in the Marlins’ lone win over the Phillies. He ranks seventh overall among MLB starters in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.29) and eighth overall among in ERA and strikeouts per nine innings (11.48).

The negatives

▪ Scoring runs: The Marlins once again struggled to manufacture runs during the road trip, scoring three runs or fewer in five of their six games even though they had four games with at least seven hits. The lone outlier came Saturday in their 12-9 loss to the Phillies when the Marlins put together a eight-run stretch from the sixth to eighth innings to almost erase a nine-run deficit.

▪ That one bad inning: Relatively speaking, the Marlins’ young pitching staff has continued to impress, but there’s the inevitable one inning that comes in to haunt them. It was the first for Smith on Thursday, with a 16-pitch at-bat with J.T. Realmuto that ended in Smith’s favor ultimately cost him an extra inning on the mound. It was the first for Pablo on Sunday, a 26-pitch frame in which he gave up a full-count walk to Bryce Harper and then a full-count RBI double to Rhys Hoskins with two outs. It was the second for Trevor Richards on Saturday, a 35-pitch frame in which he gave up four earned runs.

▪ Falling behind early: Outside of the 3-1 win against the Indians on Tuesday to open the series, the Marlins had to play catchup in every game of the road trip. They rallied on Thursday to open the series in Philadelphia, coming out of a 1-0 hole in the second inning to tie it in the third and ultimately win on a Starlin Castro go-ahead home run in the 10th, and almost erased a nine-run deficit on Saturday. But with this team, rallies can be hard to find and something as small as a two-run deficit might be tough to climb back from.

Garrett Cooper update

Garrett Cooper, the Marlins’ Opening Day starting right fielder who has been on the Injured List since Aug. 31 with a left-calf strain, is nearing his return. The outfielder/first baseman, who missed most of the 2018 season with a pair of wrist injuries, has gone 6 for 9 over his three rehab assignment games with Class A Advanced Jupiter.

“When he shows he is healthy and able to play two, three, four days in a row, then we have to make a decision,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Sunday. “When they think he’s ready, and think he’s sharp. Once that’s the case, he doesn’t necessarily have to prove he can play 14 days in a row to be able to be here.”

Cooper’s return would come at a good time. First baseman Neil Walker has missed the last three games with hamstring soreness. The Marlins are optimistic he will be fine for the homestand, but Cooper would be an option to help limit Walker’s innings if he gets activated fromthe IL. Cooper can also be a candidate to play in left field, which would allow him to platoon with Curtis Granderson.

What’s ahead

▪ The Marlins have an off day on Monday before playing five games at home over six days. The homestand starts with a two-game series against the Cleveland Indians and continues with three against the Atlanta Braves.