Alcantara effective again, but drops first game since May

MIAMI — Sandy Alcantara's impressive seven-game winning streak came to an end on Friday night at loanDepot Park. In front of a lively crowd of 15,565, the Cleveland Guardians kept Miami's bats relatively quiet in a 3-2 victory. For the Marlins, it was their first loss since July 2.

Despite being tagged with the loss, Alcantara was excellent in his final start before the All-Star break. The Dominican right-hander tossed seven innings of three-run ball while striking out eight. It marked his MLB-leading 14th quality start of the season. He heads into the break with a 3.99 ERA and an MLB-high 130 ⅔ innings pitched.

At this point a year ago, Alcantara was entering the break under far different circumstances. Through his first 18 starts of last season after returning from Tommy John surgery, he was 4-9 with a 7.22 ERA.

"This year feels much different, but more so because of how great we've been doing," Alcantara said postgame. "My mentality has also changed a lot. The way I've been attacking hitters this year and going deep into games has really helped."

When discussing his latest outing, Alcantara credited his relatively new cutter.

"It's been a great pitch. I don't think some of the hitters know I have that yet, so I've been getting a lot of swing-and-miss," he said with a chuckle.

On Friday, Alcantara threw the cutter 20% of the time and generated whiffs on half of those pitches.

"He finished up the first half terrifically," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said postgame. "This run we've been on, he's played a huge part in it because you know every fifth or sixth day you're getting at least six strong innings and a chance to win a game."

Alcantara's final line on Friday: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 8 SO, 0 BB. 

A case could be made that Miami's ace should be considered for a spot on the National League All-Star roster should the need for another pitcher arise at the last moment.

Miami's offense on Friday night consisted of a pair of solo home runs from Heriberto Hernández and Leo Jiménez.

For Hernández, it was his thirteenth home run of the season, tying him for the team lead. It's been a remarkable turnaround for the Dominican outfielder, who was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville earlier this season after posting a .474 OPS through his first 22 games. Since being recalled on May 7, he's slugging over .600 with a .940 OPS (tops among Marlins players during that span).

Jiménez's home run was his second in three games after going homerless through his first 37 games of the season. It was also just the fifth home run by a Marlins third baseman all season.

Uncharacteristically, though, the Marlins were held hitless with runners in scoring position.

The Marlins will look to even the series on Saturday afternoon behind Eury Pérez.