The Miami Marlins traveled from Atlanta to Washington D.C. to take on the Washington Nationals. The Marlins fought hard but lost two out of three to the Atlanta Braves. Fast forward to the next game, the Marlins bounced back in a huge way to defeat the Nationals three to zero on Monday night. The Marlins advance to a record of 61-83. Meanwhile, the Nationals drop to a division-worst record of 59-85.
Recap
The biggest star of Monday’s game was Sandy Alcantara, who pitched electric for Miami. Starting off strong, Alcantara had the Nationals hitters on their heels as they did not make any strong contact through the first 5.2 innings of play. In the sixth inning, the Nationals had their first base runner on an error from second baseman Jazz Chisholm. And with two outs in the seventh inning, first baseman Josh Bell cranked a long single off the wall. Bell’s hit was Washington’s first of the night, ending Alcantara’s no-hitter.
After Alcantara’s strong start, the Marlins offense picked up in the ninth inning. Back-to-back doubles by 1B Lewin Diaz and Catcher Alex Jackson resulted in two huge insurance runs extending the Marlins lead to 3-0 in the ninth inning.
Alcantara has arguably been Miami’s brightest star this whole season with an abundance of quality starts for the Fish. The 26-year-old finished with seven strikeouts while allowing no runs, no walks and only one hit in eight innings of work. Alcantara now has six games of 8 IP and 1 R or less allowed this season. That’s the most in the MLB.
Up Next
The Marlins will face the Nationals for game two of this three-game series on Tuesday night. The Fish will be sending out LHP Jesus Luzardo (5-7, 6.72 ERA). Luzardo will square off against Nationals RHP Erick Fedde (6-9, 5.31 ERA). Luzardo has been strong in his last three starts, allowing only five runs in over 17 innings pitched while striking out 19 batters in that span.