Home Runs Galore

Los Angeles - The key ingredient missing to Sandy's success at Dodger Stadium? Run support. Miami backed their ace on Friday night with an 11-run outburst that helped him earn his sixth win of the season and 40th of his career.

LA Sandy

Every player has their own personal house of horror. For Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, that place had been Dodger Stadium. In three career starts at Chavez Ravine, Alcantara was 0-2 with an 18.00 ERA going into Friday night. In his 10 innings pitched there, he had allowed 24 hits, 6 walks, and 4 (!) home runs. The only stadiums in which he's allowed more than 4 home runs are Truist Park, Citi Field, Coors Field, and of course, loanDepot Park.

"It's different lineups hopefully that he's probably facing. I know ballparks are different. You like hitting in different ballparks. I think there are places that you don't want to play in for whatever reason but I think that you know as you go on in your career, sometimes you get over those 'jitters' and move past that. Sandy's in a different spot than maybe he was when he faced them" said manager Skip Schumaker pregame on his starting pitcher.

It seems he did indeed move on from those jitters, as he gave the team easily his best performance at Dodger Stadium.

His final line: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO. All three runs were scored on solo shots (Betts, Muncy, and Outman).

"We can deal with solo home runs. When it's guys on base, then we have some issues. He just missed location; I think he tried to go up a couple of times and just missed middle-middle. Like we said pregame, if you miss your spots against a really good team like this, they're going to do damage, even when your guy is throwing 100 mph."

Skip also mentioned he thought his two-seam was moving more than he wanted at times and that's where the missed location came from, but the slider was really good and helped bail him out on Friday.

Leadoff homers!

Both teams wasted no time getting on the board in this one. In the top of the first, Jorge Soler slammed the 2nd pitch of the game into the right field seats for his 31st long ball of the season.

On Sandy's fourth pitch of the night, however, Mookie Betts returned the favor with a 420-foot homer to dead center.

It was Mookie's 11th leadoff home run of the season, which extends his Dodger single season record. The homer also tied Mookie with Curtis Granderson for the 6th most leadoff home runs in MLB history.

Power-hitting ball club

The Marlins went 11 years without hitting 5+ home runs in a single game. That drought ended on Friday night as the team erupted for 5 round trippers through the first four innings, highlighted by a 3-homer third inning. After Soler hit his second homer of the game to lead off the frame, Jake Burger pummeled a 3-run shot to dead centerfield. It was his 27th of the season, 2nd as a Marlin, and second against Dodger starter Tony Gonsolin.

A few batters later, unlikely power threat Jacob Stallings joined in on the fun and blasted his second homer of the year. The ball traveled 415 feet to center field, the second longest home run of his career.

Stallings mentioned postgame that this one felt like the longest one he's ever hit

In the top of the fifth, with a couple of runners on, Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted his 12th home run of the season which extended Miami's lead to 10-1.

When asked about his offense, Sandy said "It's exciting" with what they provided on Friday. "They've (Burger and Bell) been hitting bombs since they got here so we feel really happy about it."

Steven Okert, Jorge López, and David Robertson pitched the last three innings of Friday night's 11-3 win. The team snapped the Dodgers' 11-game win streak and handed them their second loss of the month of August. Miami improved to 64-59, staying tied with Cincinnati for the third Wild Card spot.

News and notes:

• The Marlins 5 home runs marked the club's first 5-homer game since July 3, 2012 at Milwaukee and just the 8th in franchise history
• Jorge Soler is the 7th Marlins player to hit two home runs in a single game at Dodger Stadium, last done by JT Realmuto in 2018.
• Former Marlin Miguel Rojas started the game at shortstop, but pitched a perfect 9th inning, retiring Jazz Chisholm, Jake Burger, and Bryan De La Cruz in order. Sandy's thoughts: "He always tries to pitch, we saw it here in Miami a couple of ties. I think he enjoyed it. He got Jazz Chisholm out and a couple of guys."

Miami has a double-header on Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm ET. Eury Pérez will pitch Game 1 while Braxton Garrett gets the ball for Game 2.

Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images