Yankees 1, Marlins 3: Bulk Brito wasted as Alcantara puts bats to sleep

An offensive breakout last night looked like a mirage after the Yankees mustered just one run on seven baserunners in a dominant Sandy Alcantara complete game in this afternoon’s 3-1 loss. On the bright side, they got another good look at Jhony Brito, and the youngster held his own in five innings of relief. Michael King, another potential option to shore up a flagging rotation, served as the opener and got better as his outing wore on as well.

Talk of King transitioning to the starting rotation quieted a bit after Luis Arraez took him deep in the first inning for a 409-foot two-run homer, the longest of the infielder’s career:

The homer was one of four hits the right-hander allowed in the first, pushing his pitch count for the first frame up to 27. But he returned to fire a scoreless second, reigniting chatter about a role change. However, 41 pitches was plenty for a first run at it, and Brito came on for the third.

The young right-hander allowed three hard-hit balls in his first inning but made it through unscathed. In the fourth, however, he started things off by hitting Jake Burger, and then Jesús Sánchez took him the other way for a single. He set down Yuli Gurriel next on three pitches, only for eight hitter Joey Wendle (he of the 61 wRC+ coming into today) to line a 98.8 mph RBI single:

That was the tale of Brito’s outing more or less. He demonstrated an increased penchant for whiffs with 12 — the second most in a single outing in his young career — and tied his career-high in strikeouts (with six) thanks to his refined breaking balls allowing his other offerings to play up. But he also yielded plenty of hard contact, with nine of his 11 balls in play hit at over 90 mph, and none hit below 84. Yet, he didn’t allow a single extra-base hit, and he gave up just the one run across five innings. The jury is still out on whether he can hold his own as a starter moving forward.

Alcantara, meanwhile, returned to the dominant form that saw him allow just one run over 17 innings in his two outings prior to a tougher one his last time out. He cruised through his first 6.1 innings today, not allowing a run and needing just 69 pitches, in part due to some excellent defense like this Gurriel grab:

However, after that play, Alcantara ran into a little trouble. In his first at-bat lasting more than five pitches, he walked Billy McKinney on seven offerings. The Yankees benefitted from some Angel Hernandez magic next, as the veteran ump called a balk and McKinney moved over to second. That enabled IKF to drive him home with a single a few pitches later:

But Alcantara still came back out for a 1-2-3 eighth and in the ninth he survived a Billy McKinney fly that would’ve tied the game in a couple of ballparks. The Yankees’ last out of the game, however, was a 60.3 mph IKF dribbler that better encapsulated their offensive feebleness and completed Alcantara’s masterpiece on his 116th pitch of the day.

The rubber game of the series is set for 1:40 pm ET tomorrow, with Gerrit Cole taking the hill against rookie phenom Eury Pérez. It’ll be the Yankees' first game using a traditional starter after three openers in a row; hopefully their ace can end the series on a high note and give the Bombers some length before they fly to Atlanta for a tough matchup with the Braves beginning Monday.

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