NEW YORK -- Sandy Alcantara was a tad bit off from ace form, and the Marlins committed costly errors in Thursday night's 4-3 loss to the Mets at Citi Field. Miami dropped all three games in the series and heads home to face another postseason hopeful in the Phillies.

Here are three storylines from the series finale:

Chance to strike
Rookie Jesús Sánchez and Lewis Brinson drew consecutive one-out walks against southpaw Aaron Loup to knot the game at 3 in the sixth. Loup entered his 54th outing of the season having issued just 10 total free passes.

With left-handed-hitting Isan Díaz (1-for-his-last-26) due up with the bases loaded, manager Don Mattingly turned to third-string catcher Sandy León (.488 OPS) in a pinch-hit situation. The Marlins' right-handed bench options were limited to switch-hitting León and backstop Alex Jackson, with Brian Anderson nursing a sore shoulder.

León struck out on four pitches, and Jorge Alfaro grounded out.

“It was the chance to turn that game,” Mattingly said. “Isan had not looked very good at the plate. Felt like we were going to take a shot there to try to kick some runs across. That's their one lefty in the 'pen, they don't use him much more than an inning. We knew we'd get a right-handed shot there, trying to bump something. ... So I was really just trying to go for a big inning there.”

Letting the ace pitch
Mattingly allowed Alcantara to bat in the seventh with one out in a tie ballgame. He struck out, then took the mound in the bottom half of the inning at 83 pitches.

After fanning Javier Báez, Alcantara permitted a two-strike hit to Jeff McNeil and a single to Patrick Mazeika that Sánchez booted in right field. With runners at the corners, pinch-hitter Dominic Smith produced an RBI single following a mound meeting. That was the end for Alcantara, who gave up four runs -- the combined amount in his past four starts since surrendering a career-high 10 at Coors Field on Aug. 6.

Alcantara wasn’t pleased with the amount of missed spots in his outing. He didn’t know whether Wednesday’s rainout due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida affected his performance since he wasn’t able to play catch as part of his pre-start routine.

“I feel real bad because, in the sixth inning, he came to me and he asked me if I felt great, and I said, ‘Yes, I want one more inning,’” Alcantara said. “He's got confidence in me, and I go out and I can't finish the inning.”

Shaky defense
The Marlins committed a season-high four errors, and two of them led to runs.

With Anderson unavailable, Díaz got his 21st start at third base -- a position he never played in the Majors until this season. His throwing error put Brandon Nimmo at second to open a two-run fourth. Later in the inning, Alcantara called for a pickoff, but Díaz missed the sign that led to a run-scoring balk.

Though it didn't go down as an error, Smith’s go-ahead RBI single glanced off the glove of first baseman Jesús Aguilar, who might’ve turned an inning-ending double play had he snared the ball.

“I barely touched it,” Aguilar told a team spokesman. “He hit it good. It's hard to see those land right after two strikes, but he kind of got lucky over there. I think I had time to catch it, but that ball just passed me.”

Sánchez, whose natural position is right field, has looked more comfortable there than earlier in the season in left. But his bobble was the second of the series that the Mets capitalized on. In the resumption of the suspended game on Tuesday, Alfaro misplayed a ball in left that Báez scored the winning run on from first base.

“We're a club that we talk about our pitching a lot, and that means we've got to play good defense behind them and limit the chances the other team gets, because we're going to be scratching for runs in general,” Mattingly said. “There are times where we're going to score, but when you force guys into more pitches, it just gives the other team more chances. I feel like we've been pretty solid, but today it was a little bit of an anomaly.”