CHICAGO -- It was only last season when the Marlins went 24-40 in one-run games, leading the Majors in such losses.

Fast forward to Sunday, and Miami not only is about halfway to that one-run win total, but they’ve made some baseball history, too.

With Sunday afternoon’s 5-4 win over the Cubs in 14 innings at Wrigley Field, the Marlins improved to 11-0 in one-run games this season. That ties the 1972 Mets for most consecutive wins decided by one run to start a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

But the win -- despite one of Sandy Alcantara’s strongest outings this season -- wasn’t an easy one. And in a game full of missed chances at the plate for both teams, the difference was a balk by Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay that brought home Garrett Hampson for the winning run.

“I'm exhausted, and I didn't play,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker quipped. “I’m just proud of the guys.”

That includes Alcantara, who kept the Cubs scoreless through eight innings and earned Schumaker’s confidence to take the mound for the ninth. Schumaker pointed to a combination of Alcantara’s pinpoint accuracy all afternoon, Chicago’s lack of leverage scoring chances against him and his velocity remaining strong late.

The Cubs put just four runners in scoring position against Alcantara, who threw 88 of his 113 pitches for strikes and averaged 98.5 mph on his four-seam fastball and 98.2 mph on his sinker, per Statcast.

“He was throwing 100 mph in the ninth inning,” Schumaker said. “I just felt like he always pounds the zone, but he was putting it where he wants it. I think it wasn't just strikes. It was, like, where he wanted to throw the strike. Slider had good depth; the changeup was really good. The [velocity] was way up. But he was just running two-seamers back on lefties, four-seamers at the top of the zone.”

Alcantara’s pitch count sat at 100 entering the ninth, and things started off well; he struck out Dansby Swanson to open the inning. But the Cubs tied the game on three straight hits by Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger and Eric Hosmer -- who hit a ground-ball RBI single through a drawn-in infield.

Schumaker visited the mound after Bellinger’s RBI double made it 2-1, but he kept Alcantara in to face Hosmer.

“Sandy's our dude, our guy,” Schumaker said. … “[The grounder] got through, and that's just baseball. So I felt like I wanted to give Sandy the chance to get out of that thing. He didn't. That's OK.”

The Marlins’ bullpen picked up Alcantara with 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. But while he failed to get through the ninth, Sunday’s effort was encouraging.

Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, has had an uneven start to the 2023 season, carrying a 5.09 ERA through six outings into Sunday. His nine strikeouts against the Cubs tied a season high, and he recorded no walks for the second time this season. It’s his third outing of at least six innings.

“I feel great about it, because I know all the hype, the hard work and sacrifice that I'm making with my pitching coach, trying to get better in the bullpen,” Alcantara said. “So it's something that I want to say thanks to God for everything.”

Beyond Alcantara, Miami certainly needed a win on Sunday amid a tough road trip. The club was riding a five-game losing streak after having lost its first two games in Chicago, paying for miscues in each.

The Marlins played a much cleaner game Sunday, and they got promising contributions from Alcantara, the bullpen and Joey Wendle, who was activated off the injured list prior to the game after missing five weeks and hit a pinch-hit RBI triple in the 10th inning.

“That is not an easy win right there,” Schumaker said. “That is hard, especially after what happened [Saturday]. It’s a tough-fought win. Wendle coming off the bench, having been down there for forever, it feels like. Came in on an early flight -- big triple there. Wish he would have scored. It would have made it easier on me and us. There’s just a lot of good things that happened today that you can build off.”

“Today wasn't the prettiest game. This series wasn't very pretty,” Hampson said. “But at the end of the day, we scrapped a win there at the end, and [we’ll have a ] happy flight on to Arizona."