After winning first three games, Miami Marlins fall flat in finale vs Dodgers
The Miami Marlins’ magic against the defending World Series champions ran out on Thursday.
After winning three games with late-inning heroics, a rough fifth inning paved the way to a 6-1 Marlins loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at loanDepot park that capped the four-game series and stopped the Marlins from getting the sweep.
“Once you get the first three,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “you want our guys to be greedy. ... We need to be thinking, ‘Win every day.’ ”
The win didn’t come Thursday, and the Marlins are now 38-48 on the season. They remain in last place in the National League East and are 8 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Mets through Thursday’s early games.
The Dodgers (54-34) chased Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara by hitting four consecutive singles to start what would ultimately become a five-run fifth inning. Alcantara in two starts against the Dodgers this season allowed 13 runs (11 earned) over 5 1/3 innings, equivalent to an 18.56 ERA. Alcantara has a 2.34 ERA in his other 17 starts this season.
“Every time I get on the mound against the Dodgers, I have to be the best,” Alcantara said. “Today wasn’t my day. I had a rough day today and I feel real bad about myself because I felt good about going outside and competing to win a game. That didn’t happen.”
David Hess finished the fifth inning before Nick Neidert threw four scoreless innings, a combo that helped the Marlins give their overtaxed bullpen a needed rest day. Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored the Marlins’ only run of the finale, a leadoff home run that went into the upper deck in right field in the first inning. It was Chisholm’s 10th home run of the season.
But while the series ended on a low note, the Marlins believe the first three games showcased the team’s potential at its best.
The Marlins outscored the Dodgers 16-11 the first three games of the series. Jorge Alfaro hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning for the 2-1 win on Monday to begin the series before Miami recorded back-to-back walk-off victories on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“You look at this team the last several days,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said, “and this is what we thought we had. We just need to do it on an everyday basis. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose, but nonetheless when you see it out there, it’s pretty darn exciting.”
Starling Marte made it from second to home on a wild pitch-throwing error combo in the 10th inning for Tuesday’s 2-1 win. Jesus Aguilar hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to cap Wednesday’s 9-6 victory.
“They have some talent over there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday, “and they’ve put it on us the first three days.”
But time is running out to determine how that hope of an extended breakthrough that could vault Miami back into the NL East race will translate into the Marlins’ approach at MLB’s July 30 trade deadline.
But, Ng points out, 42 of the Marlins’ final 76 games are against division opponents, starting with their three-game series with the Atlanta Braves to close out their schedule ahead of the All-Star Break.
Marte and Aguilar, the two walk-off heroes from Tuesday and Wednesday, will likely attract offers as the deadline approaches as could shortstop Miguel Rojas, outfielder Adam Duvall and late-inning reliever Yimi Garcia.
“If we do any deals,” Ng said, “we’re going to do deals that make sense for us in the long term as well as the short term.”
Acuna saga is ‘history,’ Ng says
With the Marlins hosting the Braves for three games starting on Friday, the saga that is Ronald Acuna Jr. being hit by pitches is bound to resurface.
The latest chapter came last week at the Braves’ Truist Park, when Pablo Lopez’s 91.6 mph sinker to begin the bottom of the first inning plunked the Braves outfielder. Lopez, Mattingly and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. were ejected.
The ejection put the Marlins’ bullpen in a tough spot over the past week, but the Marlins still won four of six games since the incident.
“It’s history,” Ng said. “We just move on, and looking at what this team did the last several nights, you can tell we have a short memory, which is awesome.”
More Ng highlights
Some other notable comments from Ng on Thursday, who spoke on the Bally Sports Florida TV broadcast in the third inning, Marlins radio in the top of the fourth inning and in person with print and online media in the bottom of the fourth:
▪ On the progression of pitching prospect Edward Cabrera, who has a 1.77 ERA with 26 strikeouts against five walks in 20 1/3 innings spanning four starts for the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos after rehabbing from right biceps nerve inflammation that has hampered him since before the start of spring training: “I think with Cabrera, we just want to see more innings from him. Obviously, he just got healthy, and we want him to do it for a good amount of time just to make sure that he’s ready. When we bring him up, we’d like to make sure that he is ready to go and he stays up here for however long. With him, it’s just time.”
▪ On her overall thoughts on where the club stands as the All-Star Break approaches: “I think that our record is not indicative of the club that we thought we put together over the offseason. I think injuries have been a big part of that, and we’ve had some inconsistency as well, but I think you’re starting to see now the club really come together. I mean, the bullpen’s done a fantastic job. Our starting pitching has been fantastic. I think you’re now starting to see — I think you can see by our run differential that we are very capable of scoring a lot of runs. We need to be a little bit more timely, but the last week has been great.”
▪ On what Ng has seen from the offense recently: “One thing right now that’s exciting is watching these guys going the other way, hitting and running, running like we’re capable of, and really just putting all those pieces together and coming at it hard every single day.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 3:16 PM.
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