KANSAS CITY — Kyle Stowers left the Marlins’ 7-3 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium with a cramping left hamstring, threatening to sideline a key bat as Miami (71-70) sits three games behind the Diamondbacks (74-67) for the final National League Wild Card spot with 21 games remaining.
Stowers, who most recently landed on the injured list Aug. 11 with a left hamstring strain and returned Aug. 24, was replaced in the bottom of the eighth inning by rookie Deyvison De Los Santos, who was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville earlier in the day. Hamstring trouble has plagued Stowers all season — he also missed time to start the year with a right hamstring strain.
“He obviously got hit in the foot, and that didn’t feel great,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “I went out there for one of the pitching changes, he just said his left hamstring was cramping up some, so I’m glad he spoke up and said something.” McCullough added he was “hoping it was nothing more than just a cramp.” Stowers had been hit on the left foot by righty Craig Kimbrel’s 93.2 mph four-seamer in the seventh inning. Since returning from the IL, Stowers had gone 9-for-30 (.300) with two doubles, two homers and seven RBIs in nine games.
Agustín Ramírez provided a bright spot, launching his first homer since April 20 — a shot to straightaway center off righty Michael Wacha’s first-pitch cutter in the fourth inning. Ramírez, who spent three months at Triple-A Jacksonville, has gone 13-for-57 since being recalled in early August. The Marlins ranked 28th in the Majors with 56 right-handed homers entering the game, and Ramírez, who clubbed 21 homers as a rookie in 2025, could help address that gap.
“It was good to see Ramírez drive a ball like that to the middle of the field in the air,” McCullough said. “That’s a really good sign, and he’s someone that can do that for us. So hopefully something like that can get Ramírez going here over the next couple of weeks. It’d be a real boost for us.”
Sandy Alcantara, who turns 31 on Monday, allowed four runs over six innings on the nine-year anniversary of his Major League debut. Despite leading the Majors in innings pitched (195 2/3), starts (30) and quality starts (21), the loss marked his fifth straight start the Marlins have dropped.
“It means a lot, knowing that in 2023 I couldn’t be out there and do my best for the team to win a game to get to the playoffs,” Alcantara said. “Finally, we’re doing great this year. We still have the chance to make it. So now I’m very happy to be on that spot to be out there and fighting every fifth day for my team to win a lot of games.”
If Miami continues to use scheduled off-days as it has, Alcantara would get four more starts by season’s end. The Marlins’ next step is determining whether Stowers’ hamstring will require another IL stint as the club fights for its first postseason berth in years.