Sandy Alcantara pitched eight scoreless innings and lined his first major league hit as the host Miami Marlins defeated the Colorado Rockies 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.

Hitters for both teams may have been hindered by the shadows that hung over home plate in the early innings.

Miami, which also got a two-run single by Jorge Alfaro and a solo homer from JT Riddle, split its season-opening series after losing the first two to Colorado.

Alcantara (1-0), a 23-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, made just his seventh major league start. His eight innings on Sunday marked the longest outing of his brief career.

Armed with a fastball that averaged 95.5 mph last season and can tick up to 100, Alcantara used his slider more on Sunday and got a career-high 12 ground-ball outs.

Overall, he allowed just four hits -- three singles and one double -- and no walks. He struck out six and fired first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 27 batters he faced.

The Rockies got a double and a walk against reliever Wei-Yin Chen, but Sergio Romo -- new to Miami this season -- cleaned it up with three straight outs for his 110th career save.

Colorado starting pitcher Jon Gray (0-1) left the game with two outs and none on in the seventh. He fired a fastball to Alcantara and then departed with an unspecified injury. In 6 2/3 innings, Gray allowed five hits, one walk and three runs. He struck out 10 and threw 89 pitches.

Offensively, Colorado threatened in the third with Tony Wolters' leadoff double. With Wolters at third and two outs, David Dahl's grounder down the line handcuffed first baseman Neil Walker, with the ball bouncing off him into the air. But Walker recovered, catching the ball and tossing to Alcantara to end the threat.

Miami scored twice in the fourth. Brian Anderson drew a full-count walk, Walker hit a first-pitch fastball for a single, and one out later, Alfaro hit a first-pitch slider for a two-run single.

Riddle led off the seventh by pulling a 1-1 changeup over the fence in right for his second homer of the season and a 3-0 Miami lead, and the Marlins held on from there.

--Field Level Media