MIAMI — Kyle Stowers returned to the Miami Marlins lineup ahead of schedule, coming off the 10-day injured list to start at first base and bat third in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox at loanDepot park. He went 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.

Stowers landed on the injured list with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain on Aug. 11, retroactive to Aug. 10, after he came up limping while rounding first base on a two-run single during Miami’s game on Aug. 9. His most recent status update had projected a return-to-play timeline for the week of Aug. 24 — and he beat it without a rehab assignment, instead hitting off a spin ball machine to recreate game-like pitch shapes.

“I thought the swing he had on the double to right-center, staying on a breaking ball like that against [Ranger] Suárez, very impressive,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “He came back and seemed very confident in the box. He was getting off some swings. It was nice to have him back in there, and I thought he took some good passes tonight.”

Stowers said the injury initially felt worse than his spring setback — he dealt with a right hamstring strain twice during Spring Training, forcing him to start the season on the 10-day IL and make his debut on April 19 after a five-game assignment with Triple-A Jacksonville. “At first when it happened symptom-wise, I thought I was worse than what I did in spring,” Stowers said, noting he spent time in a hyperbaric chamber for recovery. “But I think with the injury being more in the part of the muscle, kind of made it a little bit easier or heal faster, I should say, than the last. Fully ramped up from a baseball standpoint. Last time, hadn’t had a Spring Training.”

At the time of the injury, Stowers had posted 13 homers, an .867 OPS and 41 RBIs in 57 games since June 1, establishing himself as the club’s regular first baseman — a position he hadn’t played in his professional career. In his absence, Griffin Conine started seven of the 12 games at first, followed by Leo Jiménez with three starts and Graham Pauley and rookie Deyvison De Los Santos with one apiece.

“He’s someone that I’m sure other teams are going to circle, you’re going to know when he’s coming up, and then all the production,” McCullough said. “Hard to state how important Kyle is, not just the production, but then certainly also having him in there and how that spreads other guys out.”

De Los Santos, who went 1-for-2 as the Marlins’ first baseman on Sunday, was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville as the corresponding roster move.