Offense shows life late, but Marlins can’t overcome early struggles. Rays clinch sweep
It took Sandy Alcantara three pitches to be greeted back to Major League Baseball. After being sidelined for more than a month after battling COVID-19 and working his way back up to full strength at the team’s alternate training site in Jupiter, Alcantara’s could only watch as the first pitch he allowed in play on Sunday sailed beyond his defense’s reach.
Joey Wendle turned on a changeup and sent it into the grass in right-center field for a leadoff home run. Yoshitomo Tsutsugo did the same three batters later. Alcantara needed 32 pitches to get out of the first inning Sunday.
The game was out of reach at that point, although the Marlins kept digging themselves into a deeper hole afterward.
Alcantara’s shaky first inning and a poor outing by Robert Dugger put the Marlins in a bind that the offense couldn’t recover despite rallying late in a 12-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays to cap a three-game sweep at Marlins Park. The loss drops Miami to 14-15, marking the first time they have fallen below .500 this season. Miami is also 1-8 at its home ballpark this year and has lost eight consecutive games against the Rays dating back to the 2018 season. Tampa Bay improves to an AL-best 24-11.
“We scored some runs,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “but we were already down like 12-2. We got a little something going, which felt good. The guys kept playing and kept trying to battle in their at-bats, which we were happy about. It was a rough one. Not a very good game for us.”
Alcantara, in his first start since Opening Day on July 24, was pulled after loading the bases with no outs. Dugger immediately gave up a grand slam to Willy Adames.
Alcantara was charged with giving up eight runs (five earned) and threw 84 pitches, 52 of which went for strikes. He settled down after that erratic first inning with scoreless second and third innings before running into trouble magnified by defensive miscues behind him in the fourth and fifth.
The Rays loaded the bases against Alcantara with one out in the fourth on a Brian O’Grady single, Jonathan Villar throwing error that allowed Hunter Renfroe to reach base and a Kevin Kiermaier full-count walk. Kevan Smith followed with a ground ball to Brian Anderson, who stepped on third base for a force out but sailed his throw to first base that went past Garrett Cooper. Two runs scored. He then loaded the bases in the fifth on a Ji-Man Choi double, Miguel Rojas throwing error and Tsutugo walk before the Marlins turned to the bullpen. Miami had a season-high three errors defensively.
Adames quickly took advantage against Dugger, also throwing in his first game since returning from COVID-19, turning on a 93 mph fastball and sending it 376 feet into the Marlins’ bullpen in left field, just beyond the extended reach of outfielder Corey Dickerson.
“I caught it,” Dickerson said. “I had it in the webbing and then my glove kind of pulled down against the fence and that kind of threw the ball out.”
Dugger gave up three more runs on a Hunter Renfroe RBI double and a Kiermaier two-run home run before recording his first out.
Dickerson, Lewis Brinson and Garrett Cooper hit solo home runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth before the Marlins scored four runs in the seventh on a Cooper three-RBI double and a Matt Joyce pinch-hit RBI single. Miami was shut out 2-0 on Friday and 4-0 on Saturday in the first two games of the series.
Back to New York
The Marlins now prepare for what could be an interesting 24 hours. Instead of having an off day as scheduled on Monday — one of the two remaining off days of the season after a slew of rescheduling to make up for games lost due to their coronavirus outbreak — the team is flying back to New York to facing the New York Mets on Monday to close out their season series. The game is a makeup for Thursday, which was postponed in protest by both teams following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trevor Rogers will start for the Marlins. Jacob deGrom is scheduled to start for the Mets. This will be the fourth time in 10 games against the Mets that Miami will face deGrom.
It also splits up a two-series homestand, with the Marlins returning to Miami immediately following Monday’s game against the Mets to play two games against the Toronto Blue Jays at Marlins Park on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It’s the latest scheduling hurdle for the Marlins to overcome.
“As much as anything, it’s not optimal, none of it,” Mattingly said. “Getting on a plane and being on the road for, I think we’ve been home for like seven days the whole year. That’s what it feels like. We’ve been on the road and then to have to jump back on a plane, it’s not a good situation for us, but we have to get over that. It’s one of the things we talk about. You can complain about it all you want and feel like everything has been for everyone else beside us. We can feel that way, but it doesn’t matter. We have to get over it. I think that’s where we’re all that. Nobody wanted to go back to New York, but we’re going back to New York. Now, we’ve got to play and we’ve got to get over it.”
Miami’s final off day of the season is Thursday. The Marlins will play 27 games over 23 consecutive days to close out the regular season after that.
Trade deadline
And not to be forgotten, Monday is also MLB’s trade deadline for the 2020 season.
The Marlins, still in playoff contention despite losing four consecutive games, could look to be buyers ahead of the 4 p.m. deadline and they have the pieces to make trades should they choose. Miami’s minor-league system is among the top five in baseball by most rankings. Miami also has a relative surplus of outfielders and starting pitching — both big-league ready and among their prospects — that could be enticing to other teams.
But just how much they’re willing to give away, especially considering the Marlins are on what they hope to be the upswing of their rebuild three years in the making, will be key.
“Our goal is always to be opportunistic,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said last week. “If there is a chance, an opportunity for us to improve this roster, then we’ll explore it. That’s always our focus. That’s always our goal.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2020 at 4:36 PM.
.JPG)