Stowers Hamstring Puts Another Hole in Miami's Lineup

Kyle Stowers left Sunday's 12-3 win over the Angels with a tweaked left hamstring and is awaiting further evaluation. The timing is lousy. Miami just traded away Liam Hicks at the deadline, Braxton Garrett is gone, Lake Bachar is gone — the roster is already thinner than it was a month ago. Stowers, hitting .257/.354/.455 with seven home runs in 47 games, had been the team's most consistent run producer. Losing him, even briefly, removes a bat the Marlins don't have a clean replacement for.

Connor Norby is next in line at first base by the depth chart, and he's been serviceable at .243 with six home runs in 58 games. That's a step down from what Stowers was providing, and Miami can't really afford steps down right now. The team is 3.5 games out of the last wild card with 45 games left and a road record that has been a persistent problem all season. The margin is thin enough that a week without Stowers matters.

The one cushion: the offense doesn't have to carry everything. Miami is allowing 3.4 runs per game over the last 10, down sharply from where it was during the July collapse, and Sandy Alcantara — who made franchise history in the same game Stowers got hurt — is pitching as well as anyone in the rotation. The pitching can keep them in games. The question is whether the lineup, already missing Otto Lopez at full strength, has enough depth to keep scoring runs while Stowers gets evaluated.