Marlins drop first game after All-Star Break to Orioles. Takeaways from the loss
That wasn’t the start the Miami Marlins were looking for coming out of the All-Star Break.
The Marlins dropped their series opener to the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 on Friday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to begin the unofficial second half of the season.
Miami falls to 53-40 on the season. Baltimore improves to 55-35.
The game was delayed one hour and six minutes due to the threat of inclement weather.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Sandy Alcantara fine in first start after break
After a strong finish to an otherwise struggle of a first half of the season, right-handed pitcher Sandy Alcantara looked to keep momentum going after the All-Star Break.
Two mislocated pitches in the fourth inning spoiled an otherwise solid outing.
Alcantara held the Orioles to three runs (two earned runs) on eight hits and one walk while striking out five over six innings of work.
The two earned runs were solo home runs in the fourth inning, with Cedric Mullins sending a middle-middle four-seam fastball 382 feet to right-center field and Adam Frazier following two at-bats later by sending a middle-middle sinker 413 feet to center field.
The other run Alcantara allowed came in the second inning. Mullins led off with a single, moved to third base on a stolen base plus a throwing error from catcher Jacob Stallings on the stolen base attempt and then scored on a Frazier single through the left side.
Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, entered the All-Star Break with a 4.78 ERA through his first 18 starts. His final three starts, however, were more Alcantara-like, a 2.89 ERA over 18 2/3 innings.
He followed that up with another quality start on Friday, but still not one that was likely up to his personal standards.
De La Cruz’s bases-loaded hit ... but little else
Outfielder Bryan De La Cruz opened scoring for Miami in the third inning with a two-out, bases-loaded RBI single to left field to score Joey Wendle.
De La Cruz has a team-leading six hits and 10 RBI this season with the bases loaded. He is tied for third in MLB this season in bases-loaded hits, behind only the Houston Astros’ Alex Bregman and Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, both of whom have seven. His 10 RBI with the bases loaded are tied for 16th in MLB.
He is one of just two Marlins hitters with multiple bases-loaded hits this season. The other is Luis Arraez, who is 4 for 8 with the bases loaded.
The Marlins overall entered Friday hitting .197 with the bases loaded (15 for 76). That’s tied for the fifth-lowest mark in MLB. They are one of three teams without a grand slam (also the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres).
Outside of that hit, though, the Marlins’ offense did very little on Friday. Jorge Soler hit a solo home run in the eighth to cut the team’s deficit to 3-2 but Miami mustered nothing else beyond that.
The team had just five total hits, struck out 11 times and went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
Luis Arraez, trying to become the first player since Ted Williams in 1941 to finish a season with a .400 batting average, went 0 for 3 with a walk to drop his batting average on the season to .380.
An MLB debut
Left-handed pitcher Robert Garcia made his MLB debut in the seventh inning. He faced just three hitters, giving up a hit and a walk while logging one out before Bryan Hoeing entered and induced an inning-ending double play with the first pitch he threw but gave up a two-run home run in the eighth to Frazier.
The Marlins acquired Garcia in the minor-league phase of the 2021 Rule 5 Draft. This season, he posted a 2.95 ERA over 27 appearances for the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. He had 54 strikeouts against 21 walks and a .231 batting average against in 36 2/3 innings of work.
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