ATLANTA -- Six days ago, National League Cy Young candidate Sandy Alcantara had his best slider in a complete-game victory over the Dodgers. He couldn’t say the same following Friday night’s 8-1 loss to the Braves at Truist Park, where he surrendered a season-high-tying six runs in five-plus frames.

Atlanta’s offensive production against Alcantara came courtesy of a trio of two-run homers, marking just the fourth time in his career -- and first since Aug. 6, 2021 -- he has been taken deep three times in a game. Two of those long balls were on his slider.

Slider vs. LA: Five strikeouts, one homer, 45% called strike/whiff (CSW) rate
Slider vs. ATL: One strikeout, two homers, 18% CSW rate

So what changed in less than a week? Alcantara has a theory.

“I [didn't] feel 100 percent ready because of the off-day yesterday, but I was able to compete inning by inning, but I missed a lot of locations,” said Alcantara, who had never allowed a homer to Atlanta in 62 career innings.

Coming out of the All-Star break, manager Don Mattingly noted that Miami would monitor Alcantara’s workload -- he leads the Majors in innings by 20 -- by taking advantage of off-days on the calendar. Such was the case on Thursday, when the Marlins had a free day in Atlanta, because they had flown out of Miami following Wednesday’s loss to the Rays.

“Lay down, try to take a rest, but I think we've got to do something on those off-days,” said Alcantara, who is known for his intense post-start workouts. “I've got to maybe go to the gym and run or something like that.”

Alcantara looked sharp early, cruising through three scoreless innings on 39 pitches. The trouble began in a 32-pitch fourth. During an 11-pitch sequence, the Braves collected four consecutive two-out hits. Alcantara left a hanging slider to Travis d’Arnaud for a homer off the top of the left-center-field wall, then a four-seamer that wasn’t inside enough to rookie Vaughn Grissom two batters later. That prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.

Entering the series opener, Alcantara had dominated the Braves with a 1.74 ERA (12 earned runs) in nine career starts. In May, Alcantara held the Braves to just one earned run across consecutive starts (17 innings), recording 21 strikeouts to two walks. He collected just three strikeouts with one walk and a hit batter on Friday.

“I was looking to strike out people,” Alcantara said. “Like I said, off-day yesterday, I think that affected me to have my nasty slider.”

Prior to that fourth inning, Alcantara had given up four runs or more in a start in just five of 26 outings this season.

It was the third and final homer -- this one by Michael Harris II on a two-strike slider -- that chased Alcantara with no outs in the sixth. Entering Friday, Alcantara had a -4 run value on the pitch. He had given up two homers on the pitch all year, but Atlanta equaled that total.

“I just think tonight, he got hurt with the breaking ball,” Mattingly said. “That's a good club over there. He just left some breaking balls [up]. I thought he had a good fastball today. It looked like his stuff was good. Maybe he was getting a little forward in his delivery or something. … Left a couple of breaking balls. It looked like they just didn't turn.”

Where does Alcantara stand among NL pitchers after his second rough start in his last three trips to the mound?

• 190 2/3 innings (first)
• Four complete games (first)
• 2.36 ERA (second) -- up from 2.13
• .209 opponents’ average (fifth)
• 1.00 WHIP (sixth)
• 170 strikeouts (sixth)

Over the final month of the season, the Marlins will try to play spoiler for clubs in the playoff hunt. They hope those same lineups won’t spoil Alcantara’s bid to become the first NL Cy Young Award winner in franchise history.

If Alcantara wants the hardware, he will have to beat the best. He faced the Dodgers in back-to-back starts before opening Friday’s series against the Braves. Alcantara’s next outing will come in Philadelphia.

“Baseball's funny,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We give up one run and think, ‘Shoot, [Alcantara] may have enough [run support].’ You just never know. He's [the] potential Cy Young Award winner, and you just never know what's going to happen. It's just guys out there doing what they do. They've all faced him a lot, and it's a rough ride. He's one of the best in the business, obviously. Like I say, it's just hard to explain.”