LOS ANGELES — Arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season was no match for arguably the best lineup in baseball this season.
Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, who entered the weekend as a top contender for the National League Cy Young Award, had his worst outing of the season in a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. The Marlins (52-69) were swept in the three-game set against the Dodgers (84-36), also losing 2-1 on Friday and 7-0 on Saturday.
Alcantara’s final line: Six earned runs on 10 hits, including one home run, and one walk with five strikeouts over just 3 2/3 innings.
It was Alcantara’s shortest outing of the year, one inning shorter than his 4 2/3 inning start against the San Diego Padres on May 6. It was also the most runs and hits Alcantara has allowed in a game this season. He had previously allowed five earned runs once this season (May 1 against the Seattle Mariners) and hadn’t given up more than eight hits (July 29 against the New York Mets and Aug. 10 against the Philadelphia Phillies).
Alcantara gave up at least one run in each inning he was on the mound.
In a 27-pitch first inning, Will Smith’s RBI single to center field scored Mookie Betts, who led off the inning with a single and stole second. In the second, Cody Bellinger hit a two-run home run to right-center field after Joey Gallo hit a triple to right field. Alcantara then gave up singles to three of the first four hitters he faced in the third, with Max Muncy ambushing a first-pitch changeup to score Trea Turner. And in the fourth, Betts hit a single through the left side to score Gallo and Smith hit a ground-rule double to right field to score Betts and end Alcantara’s outing after 89 pitches.
All five run-scoring hits were in or around the heart of the strike zone.
The performance pushed Alcantara’s ERA for the season to 2.19, the highest it has been after a start since May 16. He now ranks fourth in the majors in that category and second in the National League behind the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin, who has a 2.12 ERA but has pitched 53 1/3 fewer innings than Alcantara (176 2/3 innings for Alcantara compared to 123 1/3 for Gonsolin).
Alcantara won’t have to wait long to attempt to get redemption. His next scheduled start on Saturday is against the Dodgers at loanDepot park.
— The Marlins scored their only runs Sunday on a Lewin Diaz two-run home run in the fourth inning and a JJ Bleday solo home run in the eighth.
— In runs the Dodgers scored that didn’t come against Sandy Alcantara: Max Muncy hit a solo home run in the seventh inning against reliever Huascar Brazoban and Los Angeles tacked on three more runs on three hits and two walks in the eighth inning against Brazoban and Andrew Nardi as well as a throwing error by right fielder Brian Anderson.
Up next
The Marlins close out their final West Coast trip of the season with a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics.
The projected starting pitching matchups are as follows: Pablo Lopez (7-8, 3.83) and Adam Oller (2-5, 6.63) on Monday, Edward Cabrera (3-1, 1.78) and Zach Logue (3-7, 6.35) on Tuesday, and Jesus Luzardo (3-5, 3.44) and Cole Irvin (6-11, 3.33) on Wednesday.
