MIAMI -- The Marlins came out swinging on Tuesday night, getting to Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer, fresh off his strongest start of the season, for three early runs, and looking like they were ready for more.

But whatever momentum they had gained was quickly lost in the game-changing third inning. Francisco Lindor started things off with a single, and Carlos Gonzalez blistered a three-run home run off Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins took a 7-4 loss in the Interleague Series opener at Marlins Park.

The Marlins’ fourth-straight loss provided a reminder of the importance of a shutdown inning.

“Obviously, the shutdown is nice to keep that momentum,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “But more than anything, you just want to see a guy go out there and basically throw it through a wall. When you play against a good team, you've got a chance to be aggressive and go get people, you want to see him be on the attack.”

Alcantara, 23, is generally regarded as having the best pure stuff on the staff. They want to see him more on the attack, especially with his fastball, which averaged 96.2 mph.

“To me, I always see it as a lack of aggression,” Mattingly said. “It's like a lack of confidence in his fastball. I don't feel like we see his best stuff as often as we could. When you've got 97 and 98 in the tank, you'd like to see it more, instead of pitching on the lower end of your stuff. We want to see him pitch on the upper end of his stuff.”

In the loss, Miami first baseman Garrett Cooper was struck by a pitch on the left hand, and exited the game. And in the sixth inning, reliever Nick Anderson struck out the two batters he faced, giving him 24 strikeouts in April. That’s the most ever by a Marlins’ reliever in April. Anderson also tied Matt Mantei (May 1999) and Kyle Barraclough (August 2016) for most strikeouts in any month by a Miami reliever.

Alcantara’s record fell to 1-3 with a 4.86 ERA. He was matched against Bauer, who settled down after giving up three runs in the first two innings, and a solo homer to Curtis Granderson in the fourth.

“It's one of the things I've been working on since Spring Training, making the adjustments with the batters,” Alcantara said through an interpreter. “I work on that in my bullpen [sessions]. I don't know what's going on. The batters, maybe they're getting more adjusted. That's one of the things I'm going to keep working on.”

Alcantara faced the Indians for the second straight start, and worked 5 1/3 innings, giving up six runs (four earned) on seven hits with three walks, one strikeout and two home runs. At Cleveland on April 24, he gave up two runs (one earned) in five innings.

“Maybe having them back to back,” Alcantara said had something to do with things. “I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep my head up high and keep working, every day.”

After the Marlins scratched out two runs in the second inning to go ahead, 3-2, the Indians responded immediately, sparked by Lindor’s single. Leonys Martin reached on Martin Prado’s error, and Carlos Santana made it 3-3 with a run-scoring single. Gonzalez then found the seats in right-center, making it 6-3.

Alcantara threw 23 pitches in the third, and the most painful one was the 86.4 mph changeup that stayed up in the zone and Gonzalez blasted a projected 404 feet, according to Statcast, with an exit velocity of 108 mph.

“Every time we were scoring, we were giving it right back,” Mattingly said. “It is disappointing that we didn't get that shut down in there somewhere to kind of keep the momentum on our side of the field. Once they got that lead, it seemed like Trevor was settling down as that game was going on. We just couldn't get to him.”