Alcantara ends his season on a high note as Marlins outlast Mets 6-2
The Marlins were eliminated from postseason contention Thursday.
But make no mistake: This weekend’s season-ending three-game series against the Mets at loanDepot park matters to Marlins manager Clayton McCullough and his players.
“For people to say, well, this game doesn’t matter — that’s one of the most ignorant [statements] I’ve ever heard,” McCullough said before Friday’s 6-2 triumph, the Marlins’ 12th win in the past 15 games, in front of an announced crowd of 34,196. “They’re major-league players. Every game matters. Us as a team, we want to go out every night and win as many games as we can.”
There’s an incentive, too, McCullough said.
“We’ve certainly been watching the Mets and their results lately as we’ve been trying to push ourselves into the postseason picture,” he said. “Now we know that Sunday ends our season. We’d love nothing more than next week the Mets be watching games from the same place we will be.”
The Mets started Friday’s game with a one-game lead on the Reds for the third and final National League wild card. They’re now tied after the Reds’ 3-1 win against the Brewers on Friday.
Meanwhile, with a 78-82 record this season, the Marlins have secured a record at least 16 games better than in 2024 (62-100), marking the largest year-over-year win improvement in a non-shortened season in club history.
“I’m not surprised at all that our group rose to the challenge today,” McCullough said of their response to Thursday’s elimination.
The Marlins scored all their runs Friday in one inning and received a strong final start from Sandy Alcantara, who ended an up-and-down season coming off Tommy John surgery with a memorable performance that ended with him receiving a standing ovation from fans.
“I was close to crying,” he admitted afterward.
Alcantara pitched seven innings, allowing two runs and six hits. He struck out three and walked two.
“That’s the way I want to end the season,” he said. “Next year is going to be completely different.”
The Mets jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning. Francisco Lindor clubbed Alcantara’s second pitch 392 feet to right center for his 31st homer of the season and Pete Alonso added an RBI double.
Alcantara settled in after that and grew stronger as the game progressed. He retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced. He finished the season with a 5.36 ERA — 3.13 ERA over his final 12 starts.
“He just stuck with it,” McCullough said, summing up Alcantara’s season. “His competitiveness, his toughness, resiliency — all of the endearing qualities we love about Sandy, they just continued to shine through the year. When things came together for him, the command was there. We’ve seen this run of seven, eight, nine starts now where it’s looked like the Sandy of old.
“The first couple of innings, he just wasn’t in a good rhythm tonight. And early in the season, I’m not sure how that would have gone. Now he’s able to put things together much differently and finds another gear late in games.”
Trailing 2-0 after the first inning, the Marlins scored six runs in the fifth, punctuated by Connor Norby’s two-run homer. Norby’s blast into the left-field seats gave the Marlins their ninth pinch-hit homer of the year — tops in the majors and tied for the most in a season in franchise history, matching 2019.
Griffin Conine and Troy Johnston singled off Mets starter Brandon Sproat to lead off the fifth for the Marlins. Heriberto Hernández then tripled into the right corner to bring both runners home and knot the score. After Jakob Marsee’s RBI groundout gave the Marlins a 3-2 lead, Xavier Edwards hit an RBI single off reliever Gregory Soto.
Edwards, the team’s leadoff man most of the season, batted third Friday for the fourth time in the past six games. He batted fifth and sixth the other two games this stretch.
McCullough, who said he didn’t want any player to feel “married to any one spot,” said he approached Edwards during the road trip.
“I said, look, I’d love to be able to experiment some and shake things up, and X was on board,” McCullough said.
With two steals in the fifth inning, Agustín Ramírez notched his fifth multisteal game of the season, matching the MLB record for a catcher set by Ray Schalk of the White Sox in 1916.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 10:53 PM.