MIAMI -- A roar of thunder briefly interrupted Marlins general manager Kim Ng’s reply when asked pregame how confident she was that ace Sandy Alcantara would return to form in the second half.

“That was a sign."

Alcantara allowed just a solo homer to J.T. Realmuto across 6 2/3 innings in Friday night’s heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Phillies at loanDepot park. Closer A.J. Puk blew his second straight save, surrendering three runs in the ninth -- including a two-out, two-run shot by pinch-hitter and former A’s teammate Cristian Pache.

“Missed location, sweeper in the middle of the plate, and Pache had a good swing,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “It's a tough loss.”

Realmuto led off against Puk in the ninth with a single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Alec Bohm drove him in with an RBI double. After pinch-hitter Josh Harrison struck out, Pache took Puk’s 0-1 sweeper deep to center.

“This is the same division, so [I] definitely want to go out there and compete and beat them, and tonight just wasn't my night,” Puk said.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s Alcantara. His first-half struggles have been well-documented. The Marlins entered the final series before the All-Star break second in the National League East and in postseason position despite the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner not looking like himself.

The 27-year-old right-hander’s 2022 ERA (2.28) was the fifth lowest in MLB (minimum 150 innings), but it has ballooned to 4.72 in ‘23 to be the 17th highest among 83 pitchers with 75 innings. His worst outing came on April 10 in Philadelphia, where he surrendered a season-high nine runs in a season-low four-plus innings. The NL East rival-Phillies have had Alcantara’s number of late, crushing him to a 5.10 ERA in their previous nine matchups against him entering Friday, compared to a 2.41 ERA in their first eight.

“If we get that outing out of Sandy, we'll be OK,” Schumaker said. “We used two bullpen guys today, have a lot of bullpen arms left tomorrow, which is always good matching up against a really good right/left lineup. Sandy was great. Efficient, 95 pitches. That's as good as we've seen him. They hit him all right last time at their place. The fact that he came back like that and gave us a chance to win says a lot where he's at right now.”

Alcantara didn’t walk a batter for the fifth time this season, pounding the zone with a 74.7% strike rate -- his second highest in any start this season. He allowed eight hits -- and just five total balls put in play with an exit velocity over 100 mph -- but he erased one on a first-inning pickoff and another on a second-inning double play. Alcantara has pitched into the seventh in six of his past eight starts and has given up one run or fewer in three of them.

Schumaker elected to pull Alcantara with a runner at first and two outs in the seventh with lefty slugger Kyle Schwarber up to bat. Southpaw Tanner Scott struck him out to end the frame.

“[I] tried to be more aggressive throwing my two-seam and my changeup,” Alcantara said. “You guys saw tonight a lot of ground balls, so I feel happy about it. I'm always going to forget about what happened. I just want to be able to compete, doesn't matter what happened. Sometimes you're going to have bad outings, sometimes you're going to have good outings. But for me, I just want to be healthy and try to go outside and fight for my teammates.”

Miami manufactured a pair of runs against righty Zack Wheeler in the second with help from three other veterans that have gotten off to slow starts in the first half. With one out, Jean Segura singled and Joey Wendle doubled. Jacob Stallings reached on an infield hit that scored Segura, and Dane Myers beat out a potential inning-ending double play that turned into an RBI fielder’s choice.

Garrett Cooper, a 2022 All-Star whose first half in ‘23 also has been disappointing, took Wheeler deep to right field for a solo shot in the fourth. But Phillies pitching shut out the Marlins over the final five frames.

With the loss, Miami (51-39) is just 1 1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia (48-39) in the standings. The club dropped to 21-6 in one-run games.

“We've been doing great,” Alcantara said. “We don't want to lose any more games. Everyone is trying to win against the Marlins, so we just want to be outside and try to win a lot of games.”