Sixto Sanchez still has ‘steps to take’ before becoming Marlins’ future ace

Sixto Sanchez became one of baseball’s rookie sensations for the Miami Marlins during the abbreviated 2020 season.

His debut and first five dominant starts overall made it easy to forget he was pitching at Double A Jacksonville a year ago.

But Sanchez’s last two outings against the Atlanta Braves, including Thursday’s start in Game 3 of the NLDS, showed that the Marlins’ top prospect — while talented — still has more steps to take before he can become the team’s ace of the future.

Sanchez exited after three innings having allowed four runs — all in the third — and giving up four hits while striking out two and walking three on 50 pitches.

Sanchez’s pitching line on Thursday looked almost identical to his previous regular-season outing against Atlanta on Sept. 23 with the only difference being he issued one fewer walk.

“The walks affected me, and I wasn’t able to execute my pitches and they took advantage,” Sanchez said.

The problem wasn’t Sanchez’s impressive fastball velocity, which averaged 98.2 mph and was virtually identical to the 98.3 mph he averaged during the five shutout innings he threw last week against the Chicago Cubs.

Sanchez’s control suffered as he had trouble locating that pitch as well as his changeup and slider.

After working a lightning-quick first inning (five pitches), he escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the second inning with some help from Corey Dickerson on a diving grab for the second out.

But in the third, Sanchez walked Ronald Acuna Jr. and gave up back-to-back singles from Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna.

Sanchez’s velocity then dipped on a 95-mph fastball he left at almost eye level that Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud reached up and belted to center for a two-run double. Dansby Swanson followed with a sacrifice fly to cap the Braves’ four-run outburst.

“At first I thought, this cat’s gonna be lights out today,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “But then it seemed like the next inning he backed off a little bit and wasn’t as aggressive. He left a lot of changeups in that flatline, belt-line, thigh area, which allows for guys to hit balls hard. He just wasn’t as crisp and you didn’t see him as aggressive as you’d like to see with a lot of his pitches.”

Sanchez made seven starts in the regular season and went 3-2 with a 3.46 ERA, 33 strikeouts and 11 walks. In two playoff starts, Sanchez finished with a 4.50 ERA, allowing four earned runs on eight hits and six walks in eight innings with eight strikeouts.

Sanchez and fellow rookie Trevor Rogers, who also made his playoff debut Thursday, are among 11 Marlins’ rookies that made their major-league debut this season after being promoted from Double A or lower, including 10 that were ranked among Miami’s top-30 prospects.

“These guys are going to have to continue to develop their pitches and know where they want to go, why they wanna go there, and do their work in between [starts], stay strong during an outing and be consistent,” Mattingly said. “This will be good for them. But it shows us they’re not quite at the next step where Sandy [Alcantara] and Pablo [Lopez] are.”

Sanchez, who the Marlins have high hopes will become their future ace, will enter next season with a very good chance to land a spot in their rotation.

But he acknowledged after the game that it will take continued work on his pitch execution, primarily that of his secondary pitches this offseason.

“The experience taught me I still have a lot of work to do this offseason,” Sanchez said. “I’m going to work and work smart and stay focused in every little thing I’m doing so I can show up next year and make this team and help them in any way I can.”