TOR 6, MIA 3: Sandy's second-inning struggles cost Miami the series

After being shut out against Yusei Kikuchi and the Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff the night before, Miami went to ace Sandy Alcantara seeking a series win. Unfortunately, this outing followed a familiar script as one rough inning proved to be too much for Miami to overcome. Final score: 6-3.

After a quick first inning, it all fell apart for the 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner. Sandy gave up an RBI double to Cavan Biggio and RBI singles to Kevin Kiermaier, George Springer, and Whit Merrifield in the top of the second, amounting to five runs. Thankfully, Brandon Belt struck out and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

Sandy went to the usual sinker/changeup combo, but used the changeup more in this start. Aside from that, the only difference was that he relied on the slider more than the four-seamer. This start played out similarly to his recent outing against the Oakland Athletics—Sandy recovered from an ugly inning to work deep into the game.

"So it's gonna sound crazy, but I actually thought that was pretty encouraging," said Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "I didn't obviously love the five-run inning, he didn't love it. I thought he had trouble getting the ball maybe in the location that he wanted in that particular inning, but he navigated through that lineup pretty efficiently after that."

When looking at positives for Sandy, Skip mentioned the location of his pitches were where he wanted them, he could change the eye level when he wanted, and wasn't living in the "happy zone" where they liked it. Skip believed that Sandy got the ball down better.

Although Sandy has struggled this season, Skip still believes in him: "Yeah, I'm gonna bet on Sandy. Our clubhouse is gonna bet on Sandy, I think he's gonna be more bat burden in the second half of that game than what you've seen. We obviously need him to be that version moving forward if we want to get to where we want to get to."

When it comes to Sandy, he is someone who is never satisfied with an outing. Even when he goes eight innings and only gives up one run, he is still mad that he gave up that one run and didn't complete the game himself. Predictably, Sandy was more critical of his outing than Skip was.

"I don't see anything different over there," said Sandy. "Just want to be able to attack the hitter. They got me today...You just gotta keep positivity, keep it by myself and just go out in the next outing and do better."

"I know there's a lot of people talking negative things about me this year," Sandy continued as his ERA climbed to 5.08, "but I just keep believing in myself that I'm here, I got more opportunities to get better. That's why we're here."

Sandy's next start is slated to be on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman, who went six innings, struck out six, and walked one, only gave up three earned runs.

"Guy's a pretty good pitcher," said Schumaker following the game. "Gave us a little trouble with his split early on and then felt like the second or third time around, we kinda figured him out."

Garrett Cooper drove in two of those runs with a double in the fourth inning, which scored Bryan De La Cruz who had a base hit and Jesús Sánchez who had a double. That made it a 5-2 game. Cooper's hit would have been a home run in 15 Major League ballparks.

The final run that the Marlins scored was the last straw for Blue Jays manager John Schneider. After Jonathan Davis got a base hit and Jacob Stallings was hit by a pitch, Garrett Hampson, who was the nine hitter in the lineup, drove in Davis on an RBI single. Miami would add on a run and make it a 5-3 game.

After Sandy was taken out, Steven Okert entered and that's when Matt Chapman crushed a solo homer which ended up being the dagger in the game. Going 415 feet in the air and leaving the bat at 111.9 MPH, Chapman extended the Toronto lead to 6-3. That was Chapman's 10th home run of the season.

Miami was unable to get anything going off of Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano. With the loss, Miami drops to 42-33 and Toronto goes to 41-35 on the season.

Skip Schumaker's postgame press conference

Next up, it'll be Braxton Garrett going up against Mitch Keller in the first game of a four-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Photo by D.A. Varela/Miami Herald