Don Mattingly likens Jorge Alfaro to Giancarlo Stanton, J.T. Realmuto after 2-homer game

Jorge Alfaro was never just a throw-in for the Miami Marlins when they traded J.T. Realmuto to the Philadelphia Phillies in January. The 25-year-old was at one time the No. 39 overall prospect in the MLB.com rankings and earned a place on Baseball America’s all-rookie team in 2018. He’s not Realmuto, of course — at least not yet — but the Marlins always pictured him as a high-upside acquisition in exchange for their lone All-Star.

“There’s a lot there with Jorge,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We’ve been talking about it a little bit. If this guy can get himself in good position, there’s a lot there and a lot of it’s been untapped, to be quite honest with you.”

On Saturday, Alfaro flashed the power potential that has Miami salivating. The catcher launched two opposite-field home runs, the second of which scored the go-ahead runs for the Marlins in a 4-2 win against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park.

Each homer came off Alfaro’s bat at 101 mph or faster — and his second-inning single clocked in at 114 mph — and went at least 365 feet over the right-field fence in Atlanta. Each one was perfectly emblematic of the approach Miami (3-6) wants him to take, spraying all over the field rather than trying to pull home runs down the third-base line.

“I think it’s what his game should be and he’s got that kind of pop. This is not regular guy’s pop,” Mattingly said. “This quite honestly like [Marcell] Ozuna and Giancarlo [Stanton], and those guys. The ball jumps off his bat that way and that’s really something he can do, and there’s not a lot of guys that can do it the way he does it, so it’s something that he needs to take advantage of and that’s what we’ll hopefully help him to get in the right position to give himself a chance to do that.”

All season long, the Marlins have had success in the late innings — particularly the ninth, when Miami has now scored seven runs. A lead-off single by second baseman Starlin Castro set the stage again in the second game of a three-game series in Atlanta, bringing Alfaro to the plate. Alfaro jumped ahead in the count 2-0 as relief pitcher A.J. Minter pumped fastballs. The fifth pitch of the at-bat was a four-seamer on the outside of the plate and Alfaro reached out to get it again, firing it 369 feet to right to give the Marlins a 4-2 lead on the Braves (4-4) and silence the crowd of 35,618.

Miami kept pitcher Sergio Romo in to face the first batter of the bottom of the ninth inning, then replaced Romo (1-0) with relief pitcher Adam Conley, who notched his first save of the season and end the team’s four-game losing streak.

“I’m just trying to get something away and try to put the ball in play, try to help the team,” Alfaro said. “I just tried to make good contact, and God blessed me with the homer and I could help the team.”

It was an all-hands-on-deck effort for the Marlins’ pitching staff to get Miami in position to pounce on Minter (0-1) in the ninth. Starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara lasted only four innings, although he limited the damage to two runs before handing the ball off to the bullpen, which combined for five scoreless frames.

“I was getting under the count,” Alcantara said through a translator, “so I was trying to keep myself in there, in the game.”

Alcantara danced out of his final inning, stranding the bases loaded while allowing just one run to keep the margin manageable. Alfaro quickly picked up the offense.

After 13 consecutive scoreless innings, the righty stepped to the plate to lead off the top of the fifth. Alfaro, who went 3 for 4 with a strikeout, also got ahead 2-0 in this at-bat, then fouled off a pitch. Kyle Wright, who started his second career game after spending last season as a relief pitcher, hung a curveball and Alfaro sat on it long enough to send his second home run of the season out to the right-field bleachers.

“I just tried to stay to the middle of the field and tried to make good contact,” Alfaro said, “tried to get a good pitch and tried to drive it through the pitcher.”

Two batters later, first baseman Peter O’Brien snapped a 1 for 14 with his first homer of the season to knot the score at 2-2, where it stayed until the ninth.

This time last year, the Marlins would have hoped Realmuto’s turn in the order would come. He wasn’t just an All-Star in 2018 — he was arguably the best slugging catcher in baseball, capable of scoring a run for Miami at any moment.

Alfaro isn’t Realmuto, at least not yet. With his first career two-homer game Saturday, Alfaro made the case for why he might one day get there.

“I think they’re similar,” Mattingly said. “They both run really well. They’re both athletic. Jorge’s a little different style — J.T.’s more the pull side, for me, and Jorge needs to be more in the middle of the field — but it’s stupid pop.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2019 at 10:39 PM.