Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara takes ‘step sideways’ with shaky outing against Braves

Sandy Alcantara joined illustrious company the last time he took the mound for the Miami Marlins. The 23-year-old starting pitcher fired eight shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies last Sunday, making him the youngest player to do so since Jose Fernandez did the same as a 21-year-old in 2014.

They won’t all be like that for Alcantara, who remains the Marlins’ No. 5 prospect in the MLB.com rankings. Just as often this season, Alcantara could face nights like Saturday, when he couldn’t command his fastball and only lasted four innings in a 4-2 win against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park.

“That was a sideways step, if anything,” manager Don Mattingly said after the win. “Obviously, coming off that start, you’d like to see him come out, pound the strike zone, get after these guys. These guys got a good club, but we’ve still got to attack. Our guys have good stuff. You can’t pitch away from contact. You’ve got to use your stuff.”

Alcantara threw 93 pitches in four innings. Of those, 38 were balls and only five induced a swinging strike. The right-handed pitcher walked five batters and didn’t strike out a single Brave. Still, Alcantara battled and limited the damage to only two runs to let Miami (3-6) rally and even a three-game series ith the Braves (4-4) at one game apiece. The Marlins can get their first series win of the season when they wrap up their trip to Atlanta at 1:20 p.m.

Alcantara struggled off the bat, walking outfielder Ender Inciarte lead off the game, then grooving a fastball to Freddie Freeman, who launched an RBI double to give Atlanta a quick 1-0 lead.

The starter said he wasn’t having trouble locating his fastball, but 12 of his 31 four-seam fastballs were balls and he didn’t throw one for a swinging strike. In his first start, Alcantara threw 29 four-seamers and got five swinging strikes.

“I was getting under the count,” Alcantara said through a translator, “and then when I was throwing in the zone I was getting hit or walking at the end of the at-bat.”

Alcantara didn’t get a single swinging strike in the first inning, then didn’t get another in the fourth, when he allowed the second run.

The fourth inning, however, swung the game, Mattingly said, because Alcantara was able to avoid disaster. The right-handed pitcher stranded the bases loaded while allowing just one run.

With the bases loaded and one out, Alcantara leaned on his changeup to induce an infield pop-up from second baseman Ozzie Albies and closed out the inning by cranking up his fastball. Alcantara’s final pitch to Freeman was his second fastest of the game at 98 mph, getting the All-Star first baseman to fly out to left and keep Miami’s deficit at 2-0.

An inning later, the Marlins tied the game at 2-2 on a pair of solo home runs.

“It was a good outing to learn,” said catcher Jorge Alfaro, who led off the fifth inning with a homer. “I would say that he got in trouble, but he made the adjustment and gave us an opportunity, holding those runners on bases, to fight back in.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2019 at 1:23 AM.