Sandy Alcantara pitched a hell of a game. Wait; he has pitched a few hell of a games. The Marlins Pitching Rotation has performed well thus far. Poor hitting has derailed their season. Trevor Rodgers is a leader for the Rookie of the Year Award.
Alcantara had been masterful in his last few performances. He has been keeping his pitch count down to the point where he was given the opportunity to go the distance and put the team’s fate on his right arm as the offense flailed.
The tall lefty sports a 4-5 record with a 3.39 ERA through 14 starts. Also, he is having a career year in numerous different statistical categories including WHIP, strikeouts, and more, it’s clear that the 25-year old right-hander is on track to have the best year of his young career.
Marlins Pitching Rotation: A Dandy from Sandy
The Marlins Pitching Rotation is talented; even after trading Zac Gallen and putting Sixto Sanchez on the IL. Some say Sandy Alcantara is the “ace” of the Miami Marlins pitching staff. While he may be the number one pitcher; anyone on the staff can put in an ACE time performance. That continued with his dominant showing on Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis.
The outstanding performance of Alcantara should not go unnoticed. He went 8.1 innings, allowing zero earned runs on six hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Throwing 108 pitches total, Alcantara threw 76 strikes (70.4%) living with his normal upper-90’s velocity.
These types of performances are starting to become normal for Alcantara, which in turn is giving the Marlins a bonafide No. 1 starter at the front-end of their rotation.
Marlins Pitching Rotation; starter Sandy Alcantara is becoming a superstar
Sandy Alcantara is scheduled to take the mound Tonight when the Marlins begin a two-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays at loanDepot park. Trevor Rogers is slated to start on Wednesday.
The Marlins have numerous top young arms within their system. Trevor Rogers is enjoying an NL Rookie of the Year caliber year while Sixto Sanchez and Edward Cabrera are considered as two of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Don’t forget about Pablo Lopez either, who gets left out of many conversations for the simple fact that he pitches in Miami.
The Marlins (29-39) lost the first two games of the series 4-2 on Monday and 2-1 on Tuesday and are now a miserable 13-25 in road games this season. In regards to the length of the seaosn; manager Don Mattingly mentions “You’re looking for consistency,”. “We had a little stretch there [at home] and then we came back on the road and we’ve kind of gotten throttled and struggled to get anything on the board.”
One big takeaway, Alcantara put together his latest quality start since that 1 1/3 inning dud against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 14. The 25-year-old righty threw a season-high 8 1/3 innings and kept the Cardinals scoreless through the first eight innings; striking out seven, walked one and got a pair of batters to hit into inning-ending double plays. Wednesday was the third time in his past five starts that he threw at least eight innings while giving up two or fewer runs.
His ability to keep his pitch count in check has provided the opportunity to work deep into games. Alcantara was at 83 pitches through seven innings and 93 after a perfect eighth inning with no noticeable drop in velocity or command. Alcantara’s sinker was still hovering around 98 mph in the final innings.
The level-headedness of Sandy stands out to me. After a recent frustrating loss, Alcantara said, “If you think I’m mad or frustrated, I’m not. I just gotta keep doing my job. Just got to keep competing and helping the team.”
Alcantara has been a reliable arm in the Marlins’ rotation, and over his last nine starts has thrown at least six innings in eight of them. Alcantara took the mound and, after allowing a leadoff single to Dylan Carlson in the first, responded by retiring the next four batters. That is what you want in an Ace; consistency, Tenacity, and bulldog attitude.
Almost 3 months into the season, Alcantara has been rolling, winning his last two matchups including a 4-3 victory over the Braves on June 11, when he tossed six innings of two-run ball and struck out six. In Wednesday’s start against the Cardinals, Alcantara took the mound for a team-leading 15th start of the season and once again attacked the strike zone to hold St. Louis scoreless through eight.
Elsewhere around Miami
Outfielder Jesus Sanchez, the No. 5 prospect in the Marlins organization and No. 99 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, had at least one hit in all three games against the Cubs and is on a four-game hitting streak. The Marlins want to get a good look at what the 23-year-old can provide to the club long-term.
Mattingly is happy to have Miguel Rojas back. He said the shortstop’s return “solidifies us defensively.” Rojas, who returned to the active roster after missing 18 games due to a left index finger dislocation, said his hand feels fine.
Surprisingly; The Marlins took two of three in Chicago despite only using one of their main three starting pitchers. Pablo Lopez threw seven shutout innings in Saturday’s win, but he was bookended by Cody Poteet (3 2/3 innings, two earned runs, five strikeouts) on Friday and Thompson on Sunday. They are positioned to string a few wins together with there best pitchers.
Mattingly’s leadership is palpable. “With Trevor, Sandy, and Pablo, you feel like you’re gonna get pretty consistent starts all the time,” Mattingly said. “If those other two guys can do that, it starts to build that confidence that every time we give the guy a ball, we’ve got a chance to win that game.”
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