The Miami Marlins (26-30) and Toronto Blue Jays (26-29) play the rubber match Wednesday afternoon at 1:07 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre. Eury Pérez (3-6, 4.91 ERA) takes the ball for Miami against Kevin Gausman (4-3, 3.38 ERA). The Marlins are fourth in the NL East. The Blue Jays are third in the AL East. Both records sit at 26-30 and 26-29 respectively after a Tuesday night in which Sandy Alcántara had the worst start of his 2026 season — 5.2 IP, 10 hits, 8 earned runs, three home runs allowed, four batters hit, in an 8-1 Toronto win.
The Marlins entered this series riding a four-game win streak after sweeping the Mets at home over the weekend. They are 4-2 in their last six. They sit four games out of the third National League Wild Card spot with the trade deadline 65 days away. Sandy Alcántara’s name remains on every July rumor list. The Wednesday afternoon getaway is a chance to take a road series and keep the math alive into June.
The Sandy Story From Tuesday
The grand slam off Jesús Sánchez in the sixth inning Tuesday was the moment. Sánchez, the 28-year-old Dominican right fielder, was acquired by Toronto from the Marlins in the offseason — and he hit his first career grand slam off Sandy on the 93rd pitch of the night, a fly ball to deep right that turned a 4-1 Toronto lead into 8-1. The Blue Jays’ Dominican former-Marlin prospect drove in four runs against his old organization’s ace. The bullpen pitcher who scouted and developed him on the way up.
Before the slam, Ernie Clement had homered in the second inning on a pitch 3.76 feet off the ground — the highest pitch Alcántara has ever allowed a home run on in the Statcast era. Yohendrick Piñango, the 24-year-old Venezuelan left fielder, hit his second home run of the season off Sandy in the sixth. Alcántara is now 3-4 with a 4.66 ERA. He has allowed three home runs in two of his last four starts.
Eury Pérez Faces Gausman
Eury Pérez is coming off the cleanest start of his 2026 return. Friday at loanDepot park he went 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits in the 2-1 win over the New York Mets that sparked Miami’s weekend sweep. The 23-year-old Dominican right-hander is making his 12th start. He has a 4.66 ERA across his last seven starts. The strikeout rate (9.66 per nine innings) has been there. The wins have not — he is 2-5 across those seven starts despite striking out 43 batters in 38.2 innings.
Kevin Gausman is the Blue Jays’ rotation anchor with Max Scherzer, José Berríos, Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber, and Bowden Francis all on the injured list. The 35-year-old American right-hander is 4-3 with a 3.38 ERA across 11 starts and last pitched Friday at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates — 6.2 innings, one earned run, eight strikeouts. He is holding opposing hitters to a .238 average. This is the Marlins’ chance against a quality starter on the road, in front of 40,000-plus, with the rubber game on the line.
The International Cast On The Field
The Blue Jays put nine countries on their active roster. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the franchise face, was born in Montreal and plays for the Dominican Republic at the World Baseball Classic — he is listed day-to-day with an elbow issue but has been in Toronto’s recent lineups. Andrés Giménez (Venezuela) plays short. Kazuma Okamoto, the 30-year-old Japanese third baseman in his first Major League season, has 10 home runs and drove in a run Tuesday. Brandon Valenzuela (Mexico) caught Tuesday. Lenyn Sosa (Venezuela) plays first base. Adam Macko, the 25-year-old Slovak-born left-hander, threw two-thirds of a scoreless inning in Tuesday’s win — Macko is among the few Slovak-born players in Major League Baseball history.
Sánchez and Piñango (Venezuela) joined Clement and Daulton Varsho in doing the damage Tuesday. The Blue Jays’ lineup carries six players born outside the United States.
