Alcantara's 2nd taste of Coors Field? Bitter

DENVER -- It was billed as a great pitching matchup. And it was -- for one of the starters.

Unfortunately for the Marlins, that starter wasn’t ace right-hander Sandy Alcantara, who was shelled for a career-high 10 runs over 3 2/3 innings in Miami’s 14-2 series-opening loss to the Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night.

“I don’t have too much to say about this outing today,” said Alcantara, who was coming off his finest start of the year last Sunday, when he blanked the Yankees for seven innings with 10 strikeouts in Miami.

“It was a really bad outing for me and my teammates because they know I can pitch better. I’ve just got to keep working. I’m going to keep working and have an opportunity to get better.”

Things began unremarkably enough, with Alcantara yielding two runs through the first three innings. But in the fourth, things unraveled, with the Rockies scoring nine times for their most prolific inning since May 5, 2016, against the Giants (13 runs in the fifth).

The frame opened with Alcantara hitting C.J. Cron, who had homered against him for Colorado’s first run in the second. That was followed by an Elias Díaz single and a Sam Hilliard double before Alcantara’s counterpart, Germán Márquez, and Raimel Tapia grounded out. Alcantara had a chance to escape the inning with just two runs crossing the plate, but that’s when the floodgates opened.

A Brendan Rodgers single, a Charlie Blackmon home run, a Trevor Story double and another Cron homer later, and it was 10-0.

That was all for Alcantara, whose ERA ballooned from 3.12 to 3.70 in the span of an hour or so. As he walked off the mound following one of the worst starts of his career, the 25-year-old right-hander wasn’t happy -- but he respected the decision given how poorly he pitched.

It’s all part of the growing pains that the Marlins must endure as a team before better days come. Alcantara’s disastrous outing -- following one of the best outings of his young career -- is just another opportunity for a young pitcher to mature. All of these types of nights are tributaries that converge in one stream that Miami hopes will lead to sustained success.

“He’s a competitor, man,” acting manager James Rowson said of Alcantara. “This guy competes to the end. So it’s never easy. At that point, you’ve got to do what’s best for him at that moment. He never wants to come out of the game -- he wants to stay in the game and compete and do well. … I just tell him that the message for him is, ‘Hey, the next one’s coming.’”

The lineup had its own chance to add to the maturation process, falling behind by 11 runs and continuing to grind out at-bats. The Marlins’ offensive production came courtesy of a Magneuris Sierra RBI single in the seventh and a Miguel Rojas solo homer in the eighth. More important than the runs that scored, though, was the mentality behind them.

“I always give these guys credit where credit is due,” Rowson said of his hitters. “They deserve credit. They don’t quit. There’s something about that. You’re not going to win every game, but these are tough games. When you get down that many runs, it’s tough to stay in the game. But we just keep marching and preaching -- [hitting coach] Eric Duncan is out there marching and preaching to our hitters that every at-bat counts. And he’s right.”

In a game that was less than competitive for the Marlins, there was a scary moment in the eighth inning, when second baseman Jazz Chisholm and right fielder Bryan De La Cruz collided hard while chasing after a shallow fly ball hit by Sam Hilliard. Chisholm was down for a moment but was able to remain in the game.

“We checked him out afterwards and he just kind of got the wind knocked out of him,” Rowson said. “Trying to make a play right there, he fell pretty hard. But there’s nothing major or anything concerning at this point. He was feeling a lot better when I talked to him in the clubhouse.”

That’s good news, and much in the same way as Chisholm got knocked down hard and got back up, Rowson expects the same to be true of Alcantara when his next turn in the rotation comes around.

“This is our ace,” Rowson said. “This is the guy we trust. This is the guy we believe in. And I’m just as excited to see him get out there for his next start as I was excited to see him get out there before this game.”