Marlins winning on pitching, small ball, while Rockies search for answers

Miami wraps up June with a three-game series at the Colorado Rockies, but the Marlins probably want to extend the month going beyond Wednesday.

Despite a 2-1 setback at St. Louis on Sunday, Miami is 18-6 in June and went from eight games below .500 to a winning record. The Marlins hope to keep it going when they send right-hander Sandy Alcantara (8-4, 4.01 ERA) to the mound on Monday night for his second start of the season against Colorado.

The Rockies have not announced a starter for the opener of the series but could turn to left-hander Sean Sullivan (0-2, 8.25). He made his major league debut on June 12 and last pitched on Tuesday, losing to the visiting Boston Red Sox 5-2 after allowing three runs on five hits and five walks in five innings.

Miami's success in June has been through a small-ball strategy and pitching. The Marlins have hit only 73 home runs this season, which ranks near the bottom of the majors, but their team ERA is 3.94 (11th) and their team batting average (.246) is just outside the top 10.

"This is who we can be," Marlins second baseman Xavier Edwards said. "It's really fun to be able to play clean baseball and take extra bases and swing the bat well. Play good defense on the other side of the ball, or pitch the ball really well. So, it's kind of just playing complete baseball, and it's been awesome."

Alcantara is facing the Rockies for the eighth time in his career. He is 4-2 against them with a 3.86 ERA, which was bolstered by his performance in the season opener on March 27 in Miami. Alcantara allowed just four hits and one unearned run over seven innings in a 2-1 win over Colorado.

The Rockies lost 3-2 at Minnesota on Sunday, dropping two of three to the Twins, but they could take an optimistic view of being close to gaining a sweep. They used a seven-run rally to forge a brief lead in Friday night's 9-8 loss in 10 innings. On Saturday night, Colorado's Hunter Goodman hit three home runs in an 8-5 victory. It took a late run for the Twins to beat them in the third game.

Colorado hasn't been as successful as the Marlins in June, but it has been competitive. The Rockies have played close games for the last two weeks -- their last 12 games have been decided by three or fewer runs. They have three ninth-inning rallies in the last week -- winning twice.

There was no rally Sunday, but Colorado had a man on base in the ninth when Jake McCarthy drove a ball into the gap that left fielder Trevor Larnach snared with a slide.

Colorado's penchant for striking out was there Sunday, too. The Rockies fanned 14 times -- 10 against Twins starter Connor Prielipp -- and are 25th in the majors with 745 strikeouts this season.

Manager Warren Schaeffer wants his batters to be aggressive -- on defense and at the plate. The strategy has paid off several times this season, especially of late when Colorado has pulled out unlikely wins.

"There's no difference in the mentality with the guys, they just ran into a guy that was really good in Prielipp," Schaeffer said of the game. "Jake (McCarthy) off the bench smoked a ball to left (in the ninth). We were right there at the end."

--Field Level Media