Dodgers 7, Marlins 4: Sandy gets hit hard in series opener, especially by Ohtani

MIAMI—The warning signs were there on Monday night.

While Miami Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara began his night strong—he struck out leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani swinging on an inside fastball—he served up a lot of juicy pitches to a Los Angeles Dodgers lineup that doesn’t need the help.

Alcantara left a fastball middle-up to Mookie Betts after Ohtani’s strikeout, which Betts turned into a single. Two batters later, Teoscar Hernández took advantage of a changeup near the heart of the zone and drove it to left-center field for an RBI double.

Even the outs Alcantara recorded were loud. Three of the Dodgers’ first four outs on balls hit into play left the bat at over 95 miles per hour. 

Still, Alcantara limited the damage for a short time. He only allowed the one run in the first inning, and came back with a perfect second. He opened the third by walking Ohtani and striking out Betts. 

But then, the hard contact finally caught up with him. Freddie Freeman connected on a fastball right down the middle of the plate and sent it over the center field wall to take a 3-0 lead in the third inning. Two innings later, Ohtani hit a two-run home run of his own on virtually the same pitch and location. It left the bat, mercilessly, at 118 miles per hour.

Alcantara let a lot of pitches—specifically his sinker and four-seam fastball—over the middle of the plate. The Dodgers’ average exit velocity against him was 94.4 miles per hour.

“Was nothing about my mechanics,” Alcantara said. “I think I'm just leaving (pitches) right there. I watched the video after they took me out of the game. It was easy peasy, just right there in the middle.”

The 29-year-old right-hander, making his seventh start of 2025 after missing all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, struck out four and walked one in five innings. His ERA rose to 8.42.

Alcantara said he was happy with how aggressive he was in the zone, but knows he made a couple of mistake pitches on the home runs to Freeman and Ohtani.

“More aggressive in the zone,” Alcantara said. “Trying to not let them get too many chances. If I take those two pitches out of there, those two homers, it would be a better result.”

It was marginally better than his previous outing, which was also against the Dodgers. Alcantara allowed seven runs and walked five in Dodger Stadium, which has been a house of horrors for him his entire career. He admitted after Monday’s loss that he was tipping pitches in Los Angeles, but ironed out those issues in this start at home.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, went with a hybrid bullpen game, with Jack Dreyer getting the 1 ⅓ innings and Ben Casparius getting the next four. Dreyer was perfect, while Casparius allowed just one run on five hits and two walks.

The lone bright spot from the Marlins offense was Agustin Ramírez. Coming into the game riding a 1-for-24 slump after a hot start to his major league career, Ramírez cranked a three-run home run in the eighth inning to bring the Marlins within three runs. Estimated to have traveled 424 feet, according to Statcast, it was tied for the second-farthest homer by a Marlins player this season.