Yankees takeaways from Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Marlins, including no answers for Sandy Alcantara
The Yankees‘ offense had no answers for Sandy Alcantara as they fell to the Marlins, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon in Miami.
Takeaways
– Michael King was the starter/opener for the Yanks on Saturday afternoon. The last time King started was in 2021 but it seems he and the organization will try to get him back to doing more starting in the future. Prior to the game, manager Aaron Boone said that they are going to try and stretch King out to be more of a bulk reliever as there are not enough games to make him a traditional starter.
However, King’s first start in two years did not begin the way the team would have wanted. Jazz Chisholm Jr. jumped on the first pitch to pick up a single and after a strike out of Josh Bell, Luis Arraez turned on a 97-mph fastball on the inside part of the plate over the right-field wall to put the Marlins up 2-0. That was just the infielder’s fourth home run of the season. The Marlins would pick up a couple of more hits but King got out of the first inning with no further damage.
King’s second inning was much better, going through the bottom of the order 1-2-3. The opener’s day was done after two innings (41 pitches), and giving up two runs on four hits and striking out three batters.
– After the offense broke out in the series opener, it was a different story on Saturday. A lot of that had to do with Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara. The Yanks made 2023 Alcantara look like his 2022 self when he won the NL Cy Young award going down in order and not working counts. To Alcantara’s credit, he was filling up the strike zone and didn’t allow the Yanks to take too many pitches.
The Yanks did break through in the seventh inning. Billy McKinney drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a balk by Alcantara. Isiah Kiner-Falefa made the Marlins starter pay with a single on a 1-2 count.
The Yankees would bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning against Alcantara. Gleyber Torres led off with a single up the middle in the ninth inning to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He finished 1-for-4. Giancarlo Stanton came up as the tying run but struck out on three pitches. McKinney gave it a ride in the next at-bat as he went the opposite way, hitting a 1-2 pitch into the left-field warning track. IKF grounded out on the first pitch as Alcantara finished off his complete game.
Alcantara went nine innings on a season-high 116 pitches giving up the one run on five hits and two walks. He struck out 10 batters.
– Jhony Brito came in after King in the third inning and gave the Yankees a strong effort and kept the score close. The young right-hander went five innings (69 pitches) giving up just one run on three hits while striking out six batters, tying a career-high. The only blemish was a Joey Wendle RBI single in the fourth inning.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees wrap up their three-game series with the Marlins on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:40 p.m.
Gerrit Cole (10-3, 2.75 ERA) will take the mound for the Yankees. The Marlins will have rookie phenom Eury Perez (5-4, 2.79 ERA) on the bump.
