Sandy Alcantara suffers an atypical sixth-inning meltdown as Nationals sweep Marlins

Sandy Alcantara didn’t have any trouble with the Washington Nationals the first three times he went through their lineup Thursday. The starting pitcher, who lowered his ERA all the way down beneath 3.50 by holding the Nationals to just run through five innings, pounded the strike zone and got quick outs against a free-swinging lineup. He was on his way to another long, effective outing in a month and a half full of them.

The meltdown started slowly in the sixth inning, then came all at once. Trea Turner started with a single and a stolen base and Anthony Rendon got hit by a pitch. With two outs, Alcantara couldn’t put the inning away. Matt Adams belted a three-run home run to tie the game. Victor Robles crushed a two-run homer to put Washington ahead. A three-run lead for the Miami Marlins quickly flipped into a two-run deficit and eventually an 8-5 loss at Marlins Park.

“It was a bad pitch in a bad count. That happens,” Alcantara said. “They made the adjustment. They hit it.”

For the second straight game, the sixth inning was the killer for one of Miami’s young starting pitchers.

On Wednesday, Zac Gallen made his first home start for the Marlins (30-49) and cruised through five shutout innings before the Nationals (40-40) jumped on him to score three in the sixth without letting the rookie record an out.

On Thursday, Alcantara (4-7) faced the same fate. The only run he allowed in his first five innings came when he left a sinker right over the heart of the plate for Juan Soto and the outfielder launched it over the left-field fence for a solo home run. Otherwise, the 23-year-old starter was virtually flawless. He threw strikes and limited Washington just one other hit and a walk, even though he only notched one strikeout.

“Arguably the best pitcher that we’ve had in the first half,” Miguel Rojas said.

With Miami’s young staff, pitching deep into games has been a challenge. Caleb Smith throws too many pitches with his strikeout-heavy style. Pablo Lopez struggles the second and third times through opponents’ lineups.

Alcantara is the exception. He’s the pitcher who threw an 89-pitch complete game last month and has gone at least seven innings four times despite only crossing the 100-pitch threshold once in 2019. It’s what made the sixth inning so strange.

Alcantara entered Thursday with the second best home run rate in the National League, only letting balls leave the park 0.60 times per nine innings. He’s also an exception with his effectiveness later in games — he came into Thursday holding opponents to a .618 on-base-plus-slugging percentage the third time through the order, a better mark than the first or second time he sees hitters.

First, he hung a slider over the middle of the plate to Matt Adams the third time he faced the slugger. Then, he threw another first-pitch slider to Robles at the bottom of the zone and the outfielder hit it out. Alcantara’s final line: six innings with seven hits, one walk six earned runs, three home runs allowed and just one strikeout, and almost all the damage came in a five-hit, five-run sixth inning.

“More than anything, just a couple of breaking balls that didn’t do anything. They stayed right there,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I haven’t looked at them, but it looked like just a couple sliders that didn’t do anything but just sit there.”

One inning spoiled all the Marlins’ offense managed against Stephen Strasburg. Rojas set the tone from the start with a leadoff double against the starting pitcher in the top of the first and the infielder put Miami on the board two innings later. With runners on first and second, Rojas smacked a line drive to right and the ball got past outfielder Adam Eaton. Rojas dashed all the way to third while Eaton tried in vain to gun down a runner at home. The Marlins took a 2-0 lead and stretched it to 3-0 when outfielder Harold Ramirez grounded out to get Rojas home.

Two innings later, Rojas started another rally with a two-out single and eventually scored again to push Miami’s lead to 4-1 before Alcantara unraveled. A day after manager Don Mattingly stumped for Rojas to be the Marlins’ All-Star, the defensive stalwart put together his best game of the season, going 4 for 4 with three doubles against one of the best power pitchers in the Majors. Miami even collected seven hits and held Strasburg (9-4) to only four strikeouts, but the sixth inning dug a hole too big for the Marlins to avoid a sweep in front of 7,751 in Miami.

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President of baseball operations Michael Hill held an impromptu media session on the field for the second time in three days before Miami closed out its three-game series against the Nationals and revealed the Marlins had planned a phone conversation with Bleday for later in the day. They hope a contract agreement with Bleday, whom they selected at No. 4 overall in the 2019 MLB draft, could follow soon after.

“They won last night, and were traveling back to Nashville today,” Hill said. “We’re scheduled to visit with him later today.”

Bleday wrapped up his junior season — and in all likelihood his career with the Vanderbilt Commodores — on Wednesday by going 1 for 3 with two walks, two runs and an RBI in Vanderbilt’s 8-2 win against the Michigan Wolverines to clinch the College World Series. The outfielder finished the year as the national leader with 27 home runs and added 72 RBIs to go with a .347 batting average, .465 on-base percentage and .701 slugging percentage. He walked 61 times and struck out just 58.

The Marlins are optimistic a deal will get done shortly so the team can get Bleday’s professional career started, likely with either Class A Clinton or Class A Advanced Jupiter. The junior could also head to the Gulf Coast League first to get settled in with the organization in Jupiter. Miami’s plan is to ultimately have Bleday finish 2019 with the Jupiter Hammerheads.

“First of all, we have to get him signed and then we’ll sit down with him, and get a feel for how he feels physically and what we want to get accomplished once he’s on board,” Hill said. “We want to get him out playing as soon as possible, so he can start his career as soon as possible and that just means one day closer to the big leagues as soon as we can get him out playing.

“Everything has been cordial, so we’re hopeful we can work through it quickly and get him out playing.”

This and that

▪ Sergio Romo left the game after getting two outs in the top of the ninth inning. The pitcher went to cover third base to get the third out of the inning, but collided with Turner when he had to stretch for an off-line toss by utilityman Neil Walker. Romo stayed in to face one more batter before leaving with a knee contusion.

▪ Jorge Alfaro took batting practice on the field for the second straight day. The catcher is eligible to come off the seven-day concussion injured list Friday.

This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 10:02 PM.