MIAMI -- The only sounds inside the visitor’s clubhouse at loanDepot park after Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Miami Marlins were of players changing, zipping up bags, and water running from distant showers.
The Atlanta Braves had a chance to win their fourth consecutive series Sunday for only the second time this season, but it would mean winning the rubber game.
And they failed to do that -- like so many other times (4-9 record) this season.
Even in a ballpark where they’d had a much greater winning percentage (.655) than any other National League team since it opened in 2012, and against a team looking up at them in the NL East standings.
So, they departed to New York for Monday’s four-game series against the Mets hoping to recapture the momentum they brought with them to Miami.
“We kind of got on a roll last week,” said Sunday’s starting pitcher Bryce Elder, who fell to 2-4 with the loss. “This week I still thought we played some good baseball. It wasn’t like we just played terrible. We just lost two out of three. We’ve got to pick back up tomorrow and take three in New York and be right back up on the horse again.”
The right-hander pitched 5 1/3 innings against the Marlins, allowing five runs on 10 hits, including a 415-foot solo home run to Kyle Stowers in the second inning that ended Stowers’ 31-game homerless drought. He struck out four and walked one.
“Life of a sinker-baller,” said Braves’ manager Brian Snitker. “He had some balls that snuck through. Got hurt with a slider a little bit. Then Dylan [Dodd] came in and gave the bloop [single] to right field to add a run. In this game, one run as an add-on is a big deal.”
“I think what he said is true, but also the life of a sinker-baller also entails keeping the ball down and using the depth to our advantage,” Elder said. “And I think I just left some balls up today. Obviously, the homer was just a bad pitch. He put a good swing on it.
“Everything else other than the triple to [Jesús] Sánchez, I feel like I kept the ball in front of the outfielders which always gives me a chance, hence the reason we were still in the game. But really the slider was up, and the sinker, the depth wasn’t really quite there. I’ve got to keep the ball down. Today I didn’t do that, so I got hit around a little bit.”
Elder’s counterpart, former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, was impressive again as he continues to work back from Tommy John surgery. Alcantara allowed three runs on six hits in six innings, though the Braves pounced on the right-hander for a 1-0 lead in their first turn at-bat.
Ronald Acuña Jr. smacked the first pitch from Alcantara to right field for a double, advanced to third on Matt Olson’s fly out to center and trotted home on Austin Riley’s sharp single under the glove of shortstop Otto Lopez.
The Marlins drew even on Stowers’ blast on an 89-mph sinker from Elder.
The teams traded runs in the third, with Drake Baldwin stroking a two-out single to center to score Acuña Jr. and Lopez answering with his own two-out knock to bring home Xavier Edwards.
The Marlins took a 4-2 lead in the fifth on RBI singles by Lopez and Dane Myers off Elder. The Braves got a run back the next inning, but Edwards extended the lead again with a two-out single in the sixth.
Snitker said he was hoping to get another inning from Elder before turning to his bullpen. He noted that the difference in this series was the starting arms, more than anything else. Miami’s Janson Junk outdueled 20-year-old Didier Fuentes, who was making his MLB debut, in the Marlins’ 6-2 win on Friday night.
Elder said Chris Sale’s fractured rib cage puts an onus on him and the Braves’ other starters to produce in Sale's absence.
“It’s tough. He’s one of those guys I’ve been around for four years now off and on,” Elder said. “Being around him not just on the field, but in the clubhouse, but looking at him on the field, he’s one of those guys you can’t really replace. No matter how long I play this game, I don’t know if you can replace a guy like that. But you know, it’s our job to pick him up and bridge the gap until he gets back. So we’ve got to find a way to win games.”