MIAMI, FL—Thanks to a Sandy Alcantara quality start and Kyle Stowers snapping a long homerless streak, the Miami Marlins will head to San Francisco on a happy flight. They defeated the Atlanta Braves in Sunday’s rubber game by a final score of 5-3.
Alcantara, who made his 15th start of the season, gave the Marlins six innings of work, allowing three runs on six hits, two walks and striking out four. In his last four starts, Miami’s 2022 Cy Young Award winner holds a 2.73 ERA. Alcantara’s slider was his most-used pitch, generating three whiffs and in two of his four strikeout pitches. His sinker averaged 97.1 mph and topped out at 99.0 mph, generating two whiffs.
“They (the Braves) struggle with breaking balls,” said Alcantara. “I saw Eury (Pérez)’s start yesterday, so a lot of breaking balls and that’s where I took a couple things from those first two games. Today I was executing my breaking balls, throwing a lot of cutters with fastball combination was great today.”
Similar to his last outing against the Phillies, Braves hitters made Alcantara work, fouling off 25 pitches and posting a low 58% first-pitch strike rate.
In the top of the first inning, Alcantara surrendered a first-pitch double to Marlins killer Ronald Acuña Jr. He was driven in by third baseman Austin Riley, giving the Braves an early 1-0 lead. In the top of the third, catcher Drake Baldwin drove in Acuña, giving the Braves a 2-1 lead. Alex Verdugo grounded into a force out that allowed the Braves third run of the ballgame to score.
“He’s pitching closer to what everyone expected coming into the season,” said manager Clayton McCullough following the game. “It was going to happen. He’s on a good run now. He used all his pitches really well. To lefties, the ability to throw that cutter, throw the slider, harder breaking balls to complement the fastball/changeup helped him.”
For the first time since May 14 Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers hit a home run, taking Braves starter Bryce Elder deep in the bottom of the second inning, tying the game at one apiece. It marked Stowers’ 11th home run of the season, tying him for the team lead with Agustín Ramírez.
“I’m sure he probably felt great running the bases,” said McCullough, who was coincidentally doing an in-game interview with FanDuel Sports Network Florida while Stowers was at the plate.
Otto Lopez notched his 11th multi-hit game of the season. In the third inning, Lopez hit a 102.5 mph RBI single, driving in Xavier Edwards and tying the game at two. In the fifth inning, Lopez put the Marlins ahead, 3-2. Dane Myers gave the Marlins an insurance run, making it a 4-2 game.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Xavier Edwards drove in Nick Fortes on an RBI single. It marked his 19th multi-hit game and 16th RBI of the season. He also stole his 14th base of the season in the bottom of the third.
With the win, the Marlins move to 31-45 on the season and are an even 12-12 against National League East opponents. For the first time since September 15-17, 2023, they won a series over the Braves—Atlanta had beaten them in three of their last five series against each other and split the other two.
The Marlins will head to San Francisco to kick off a three-game set against the Giants, but first have a rare Monday off-day. Cal Quantrill will take the mound for the Marlins on Tuesday. First pitch is at 9:45 pm.