MIAMI — Momentum in baseball is only supposed to be as good as a team’s next starting pitcher.
The Yankees’ was fine Saturday, but the Marlins’ was lights out.
And so, a day after the Yankees rode a nine-run outburst to victory, their momentum to a potential second straight win was cut short by Sandy Alcantara’s complete game in a 3-1 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot Park.
Alcantara has not been quite as sharp this season as he was last year on the way to winning the NL Cy Young award, but the right-hander looked plenty dominant on Saturday.
He limited the Yankees to just five singles and two walks while striking out 10 on 116 pitches.
“He got ahead with every pitch,” said Billy McKinney, who scored the Yankees’ only run while going 1-for-3 with a walk. “He threw strikes with every pitch he had. Even when he was getting in 0-2 counts, he was still attacking and he wasn’t shying away from any pitch. It was pretty impressive.”
In the process, the Yankees and their inconsistent offense took the latest ride on the 2023 roller coaster, unable to build on their win Friday in which they racked up 14 hits.
Since the beginning of July, the Yankees (60-57) have scored six runs or more 12 times.
In the next game after those 12, they are now 2-10, and they have scored four runs or fewer 10 times in that span.
While plenty of the Yankees’ struggles have been self-inflicted, on Saturday they had to tip their cap to Alcantara as they remained four games back of the final AL wild-card spot.
“I don’t know about gut-punch, just because you realize you’re up against a guy that’s really capable and when he’s executing at the level he is [it’s difficult],” manager Aaron Boone said. “But for us, it’s about getting wins right now. We know we need to rack those up.
“When you don’t follow up a really strong performance … not that we didn’t play well, we just got held down by a pitcher on top of his game today.”
McKinney nearly spoiled Alcantara’s complete game in the ninth inning.
With a man on first and one out, McKinney gave a ball a ride to left field, but it died on the warning track.
One pitch later, Alcantara’s gem was complete, setting up a rubber game on Sunday in which the Yankees will try to lean on Gerrit Cole to claim the series against the Marlins (61-57).
Using an opener for a third straight game — this one with some more significance behind it — the Yankees had Michael King start ahead of Jhony Brito.
King, whom the Yankees are hoping to stretch out over the final two months to help their thinning rotation, got into trouble early.
He missed his location with a fastball and Luis Arraez crushed it for a two-run home run in the first inning.
King was sharper in the second inning, before Brito entered for the third and turned in a strong outing.
The rookie right-hander tossed five innings while giving up just one run and striking out six, which tied a career-high.
“He gave us a good effort,” Boone said of Brito. “Kept them down and kept us in the game. We just couldn’t mount enough.”
That was because of Alcantara, who threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of the 33 batters he faced and had just three three-ball counts the whole game.
“Owned the bottom of the zone a lot, kind of that bowling ball action on 98 [mph sinker] and then he was able to work the changeup, which probably gets a little even more action on it,” Boone said.
“It’s tough. … It’s hard to wait him out, because he is pounding the strike zone.”
