Here are three things to monitor from the series finale:
Hamstring trouble has been a recurring issue for Stowers, who most recently landed on the injured list on Aug. 11 with a left hamstring strain and returned Aug. 24. He also missed time to begin the season with a right hamstring strain.
With Miami trailing 4-3 and a runner at second in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Marlins replaced Stowers with rookie Deyvison De Los Santos, who was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville on Thursday.
In the seventh, Stowers got hit on the left foot by righty Craig Kimbrel’s 93.2 mph four-seamer but remained in the game. He was on the bases for Otto Lopez’s popout to end the seventh, then made a nice grab on Isaac Collins’ popup in the bottom half of the frame.
“He obviously got hit in the foot, and that didn’t feel great,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “I went out there for one of the pitching changes, he just said his left hamstring was cramping up some, so [I’m] glad he spoke up and said something. And [I] just thought, ‘You know what, let’s just go in, Kyle, and no need to keep pushing through potentially anything.’ Don’t really have anything further than that since we finished up the game, but hoping it was nothing more than just a cramp.”
Should Stowers be sidelined, it would come at an inopportune time. He had gone deep in the first two games in Kansas City, and entered the series finale 9-for-30 (.300) with two doubles, two homers and seven RBIs in nine games since his return from the IL.
In the fourth inning, Ramírez sent righty Michael Wacha’s first-pitch cutter to straightaway center for his first homer since April 20. Ramírez, who spent three months at Triple-A Jacksonville, entered the series finale 13-for-57 since being recalled in early August.
With rookie Joe Mack starting nearly every day at catcher and Stowers and Griffin Conine manning first base, Ramírez is adjusting to his usage. He has started twice at catcher and 14 times at designated hitter. On a daily basis, he is practicing at first base and working out in the bullpen.
“These are things that I want to do,” Ramírez said via interpreter Luis Dorante. “I want to be the Agustín that I am, and that’s the reason that we work and we practice all the time, just to be able to do these things, help the team in the ways I want to help them.”
A big reason for De Los Santos’ promotion was to provide the left-handed-heavy roster with more thump from the right side. Including Ramírez’s long ball on Thursday, the Marlins ranked 28th with 56 right-handed homers.
If Miami can get slug from Ramírez, who clubbed 21 homers as a rookie in 2025, that’ll go a long way to improving the offense, especially against southpaws.
“It was good to see [Ramírez] drive a ball like that to the middle of the field in the air,” McCullough said. “That’s a really good sign, and he’s someone that can do that for us. So hopefully something like that can get [Ramírez] going here over the next couple of weeks. It’d be a real boost for us.”
Alcantara, who turns 31 on Monday, gave up four runs over six innings on the nine-year anniversary of his Major League debut. Though he leads the Majors in innings pitched (195 2/3), starts (30) and quality starts (21), this marked his fifth straight start the Marlins have lost.
If Miami continues to use scheduled off-days as it has, Alcantara would get four more starts by season’s end.
“It means a lot, knowing that in 2023 I [couldn’t] be out there and do my best for the team to win a game to get to the playoffs,” Alcantara said. “Finally, we’re doing great this year. We still have the chance to make it. So now I’m very happy to be on that spot to be out there and fighting every fifth day for my team to win a lot of games.”