ATLANTA — The Miami Marlins are a significantly improved team this season. The Miami Marlins are still nowhere near the level of the Atlanta Braves.
Both of these statements can simultaneously be true. The latter statement, however, was on full display this weekend when the Marlins got swept by the National League East’s standard bearer for the past half-decade and arguably the top team in baseball at the halfway mark of the 2023 season.
Miami dropped the series finale 6-3 on Sunday — a more competitive outing but ultimately another loss after falling in the first two games at Truist Park 16-4 on Friday and 7-0 on Saturday.
How bad has the discrepancy been between the Marlins (48-37) and the Braves (56-27)? Miami is 1-9 against Atlanta this season and has been outscored 83-29 in those 10 games. The Braves have hit 30 home runs against the Marlins in those games — one more home run than the Marlins have runs scored in the season series.
Against everyone else they have played this season, the Marlins are 47-28, 19 games over .500, and have outscored opponents by 32 runs (312-280).
Here are three takeaways from the series finale on Sunday.
Things went south in the fifth inning
The Marlins had a one-run lead entering the fifth inning, with the Braves scoring their lone run through the first four innings on an Orlando Arcia solo home run in the second. Sandy Alcantara, albeit with a high pitch count, was pitching well, especially considering his season struggles.
Atlanta then pounced for three runs to take the lead for good.
It started with a Michael Harris II one-out single to put the tying run on base. Harris then stole second and reached third on Jacob Stallings’ throwing error. A wild pitch then allowed Harris to score and tie the game at 2-2.
Ronald Acuna Jr. followed by drawing a walk before Ozzie Albies hit a go-ahead two-run home run, sending a first-pitch, middle-down changeup 343 feet to just clear the wall in right field.
Alcantara overall gave up the four runs on five hits and two walks while striking out six over five innings.
The Braves then tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth when Travis d’Arnaud hit a two-run home run against Andrew Nardi.
Early success — and then little else — against Spencer Strider
The last time the Marlins faced Braves right-handed pitcher Spencer Strider, he threw seven no-hit innings against them before Miami finally got their first hit against him in the eighth inning in an eventual 11-0 loss on April 24.
On Sunday, the Marlins did a better job against Strider early but not enough overall.
Miami pounced with two runs on four hits and a pair of fielder’s choices in the second inning, with Jonathan Davis’ fielder’s choice scoring Joey Wendle and a Luis Arraez double scoring Davis.
After that, Strider gave up just one hit over the next 15 batters he faced — and erased the Jonathan Davis single with a pickoff — while striking out eight of those 15 batters before Davis reached on a fielding error and Stallings walked with two outs in the seventh to end Strider’s outing.
Arraez promptly hit an single to left against reliever A.J. Minter to score Davis and cut Miami’s deficit to one run and log his 34th multi-hit game of the season.
A split road trip
Despite being swept by the Braves, the Marlins head back to Miami having gone .500 on the road trip. The Marlins started the two-city swing by sweeping the Boston Red Sox.
The Marlins on the season are 23-21 on the road this season and have split their 14 road series.
