MILWAUKEE – If Friday night’s game is any indication, the Marlins are in for a ride over these final 2 1/2 months.
In a highly-contested game that felt like October baseball, the Marlins lost to the Brewers, 2-1, in 10 innings at American Family Field. Miami, which began the day holding onto the third and final National League Wild Card spot, saw its skid extended to four games.
“It was a great baseball game on both sides,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Unfortunately, we were the ones that came up on the wrong end of it.”
Friday was just one game. Sixty-four remain in the regular season for the Marlins, who entered the All-Star break with a 33.7 percent chance of reaching the postseason. Miami will take those odds if the club continues to get strong starts from ace Sandy Alcantara.
Facing the Majors’ second-winningest team, Alcantara allowed just one run on three hits over six frames to notch his MLB-high 15th quality start of the season and increase his MLB lead for most innings pitched (136 2/3). His 110th career quality start tied Ricky Nolasco for the franchise record.
Thanks to extra rest over the All-Star break, Alcantara showcased increased velocity on his fastball, which topped 100 mph five times. And though his command wasn’t quite there (four walks), he bent but didn’t break – stranding six runners on base.
All-Star shortstop Otto Lopez helped Alcantara escape trouble in the second, ranging into shallow left to make a sliding catch and save a run to end the frame.
“I would say not like a playoff game, but a game that we wanted to win, just like every game now,” said Lopez, who collected his 41st multihit game of the season – the most by a Marlins player through the club's first 100 games of a season. “Just continue that energy that we have in that game, that we had today. The plays, [they all] matter, and every little detail, and just learn from them and just keep going.”
Three years ago when the Marlins were in the thick of the postseason chase, Alcantara’s season was cut short by an elbow injury that would eventually lead to surgery. He wants to be part of the stretch run this time around, and it shows with his recent performance on the mound.
Over Alcantara’s last nine starts since June 1, he has a 2.93 ERA and has lowered his season ERA from 4.66 to 3.89.
“Each game matters. Each game counts for us,” Alcantara said. “[It’s] bad because we didn’t start the second half winning, but we've got an opportunity tomorrow to do our best to win the game. We are in a good spot right now. So, we’ve got to keep our mind positive and believe in each other. Just take advantage of each opportunity that we’ve got out there, and fight, and [it] doesn't matter what happens.”
Griffin Conine broke a scoreless deadlock with a one-out solo homer in the fifth. His third home run in his last five games came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat and was the first long ball against Logan Henderson’s changeup in his young career.
Milwaukee quickly responded when Alcantara surrendered a game-tying shot to light-hitting Joey Ortiz on a center-cut changeup in the bottom half of the frame for the lone blemish against him.
From there, both bullpens – among the best in the Majors – traded zeros until the 10th, in large part because of walk-off hero Garrett Mitchell.
With a runner at second and two outs in the ninth, Heriberto Hernández sent a 105.9 mph liner to center, where Mitchell made a running over-the-shoulder grab to prevent the go-ahead run.
It was déjà vu in the 10th. With the go-ahead run at third and two outs, Joe Mack lined righty Craig Yoho’s pitch to the left-center gap, where Mitchell once again tracked down the ball (100.8 mph exit velo) for the final out.
Righty Lake Bachar found himself one strike away from getting out of the 10th, but Mitchell singled up the middle on a hanging sweeper to score the winning run.
“We've played a lot of these games, and we're used to playing a lot of very close, tight games like this,” McCullough said. “To start out the second half and have one this tight again, unfortunate that we weren't able to come through on a few occasions. But I think we gave ourselves some shots, and it was just a good baseball game.”