PHILADELPHIA -- The Marlins had their ace on the mound with a chance to salvage a game at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday night, but they couldn't avoid a sweep as they were beaten, 4-1, by a surging Phillies club.
Miami had won 10 of Sandy Alcantara's last 14 starts. He entered the night having allowed just one run in his last 27 innings, a stretch that began with seven scoreless frames at home on July 28 against these same Phillies.
Both teams, though, look much different three weeks later.
The Marlins traded catcher Liam Hicks to the Rays at the Deadline and lost first baseman Kyle Stowers to a hamstring injury shortly thereafter, removing two top lefty bats from the lineup.
The Phillies, meanwhile, added three-time batting champ Luis Arraez just after their previous meeting with the Marlins, and they've averaged 6.5 runs over the last week en route to a season-high six straight wins.
"They worked at-bats, found a way to bleed out at-bats, and turned the field with two strikes," manager Clayton McCullough said. "That's what's required not only to get into the postseason but to win in the postseason."
Alcantara did not pitch poorly on Wednesday night but gave up three early runs and was supported with only one. He allowed four singles in the bottom of the second, including three in a row with two outs to the Phillies' 7-8-9 hitters: Brandon Marsh, Justin Crawford and Garrett Stubbs.
"I think I was doing my job, they just had some soft contact," Alcantara said. "I can't control that. I think I did great trying to keep my mind in the game and not let them get hard contact against me."
The deficit grew to three runs in the bottom of the third when Alcantara issued his only walk of the evening to Bryce Harper and Arraez followed with a line-drive homer to right-center field.
Arraez, who played with Alcantara in Miami in 2023 and 2024, is 6-for-11 lifetime with four RBIs against his ex-teammate.
"He's a great hitter," Alcantara said. "He's good enough to know me because we played together for a couple years. I've got to give him some credit, I tried to throw my best sweeper and he just won the battle. I tried to throw a back-foot sweeper but just left it in the zone."
Alcantara struck out only one batter in six innings, catching Trea Turner looking in the fifth. He hasn't been alone in that regard as the Phillies' offense has posted its lowest strikeout rate (16.22%) over any 20-game span (July 28-Aug. 18) since June 9-30, 2012 (16.18%), per Elias Sports Bureau. The Marlins whiffed 28 times in the series to the Phillies' 11.
Javier Sanoja brought Miami closer with a solo home run to begin the sixth inning, giving his team a chance to tie the game or take the lead after Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards singled with one out. Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernández both went down swinging against Aaron Nola to end the inning.
"Today, I felt like it was the curveball," McCullough said of Nola, who limited the Marlins to two runs in 18 2/3 innings this season. "We took the strikes and we chased a lot of them down below the strike zone. An inability to get off on the right ones, and chase them down below. Credit to him, he forced us to be aggressive."
The Marlins had one last chance in the top of the eighth when Sanoja singled and Lopez walked to bring the tying run to the plate with one out against right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan. But Marsh scaled the left-field wall in foul ground to rob Edwards, with a Conine strikeout ending the threat a batter later.
The Marlins were coming off a series win in Cincinnati over the weekend, then missed a chance for a .500 road trip, finishing 2-4. They return to Miami ahead of a day off Thursday and will be 64-64 when they begin a six-game homestand Friday against the Nationals. The Marlins trail the Padres by four games for the final National League Wild Card spot and will also have to vault past the Diamondbacks and Cardinals.
"We've been in some games," McCullough said, "but at the end of the day, [the Phillies] won the season series, they swept the series here in their place. We'd have liked to at least come away with one. No moral victories, they swept us here and it doesn't feel great."