Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara embraces ace mentality but gets little support in loss
Sandy Alcantara has made the proclamation before. He wants to be the ace of the Miami Marlins’ rotation.
But what does it mean, from Alcantara’s perspective, to be an ace?
“I just want to be the best,” Alcantara said Monday. “I want to be the best, No. 1. I think I have the mentality to be the best. I just have to keep doing my thing, keep getting better and keep doing my job.”
In other words, that means pitching like he did in the first five innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday and finding ways to better navigate through the trouble he faced in the sixth inning.
After carving through the Cardinals for five scoreless innings, and racking up a career-high-tying 10 strikeouts in the process, Alcantara gave up three runs (two earned) in the final frame he pitched en route to the Marlins’ 4-2 loss at loanDepot park.
“In the sixth inning,” Alcantara said, “the game changed a little bit.”
Specifically, he loaded the bases on a pair of tough-luck infield singles and a full-count walk to Nolan Arenado before the inning “got away” from the Marlins, in manager Don Mattingly’s words.
Tommy Edman scored on a Jorge Alfaro passed ball to cut Miami’s lead to 2-1. Paul Goldschmidt scored on a groundout to third base after Garrett Cooper double-clutched the ball before throwing home to tie the game. Arenado scored on a Yadier Molina sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals the lead for good.
“I was trying to keep myself in the game, fighting inning by inning, pitch by pitch” Alcantara said. “I was fighting all the time, but you saw what happened in the sixth.”
Alcantara also got little support from his offense. The Marlins (1-4) went 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners on base. They came up empty when they had the bases loaded and no outs in the third and again when Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the eighth with a double. Their two runs came on a pair of errors from Cardinals left fielder Tyler O’Neill in the first on a Starling Marte line drive that allowed Corey Dickerson to go from first to home and a Chisholm sac fly in the fifth.
An imperfect ending to an otherwise perfect second start to the season from Alcantara.
“Sandy was filthy,” Mattingly said. “He deserved better.”
Alcantara allowed just three baserunners before that sixth inning — Edman on a fielding error in the first, Arendo on a comebacker in the fourth to break up an early no-hitter attempt and Molina on a leadoff single in the fifth — and did not allow a runner past second base in those opening five frames.
Alcantara at one point struck out six consecutive batters, a feat that had only been accomplished six time in Marlins history.
He used all of his pitches and threw all of them for strikes. Both of his fastballs, the four-seam and the sinker, consistently hit 98 and 99 mph and accounted for 21 of his 32 called strikes and swings and misses.
His changeup averaged 91.7 mph and his slider averaged 90 mph.
Through two starts this season, Alcantara has a 1.50 ERA and has struck out 17 of the 48 batters he has faced over 12 innings (35.4 percent, close to double his career 19.2 percent strikeout rate heading into 2021). He has given up six hits and walked four.
“I’m just trying to learn something every time,” Alcantara said. “Nobody’s perfect in this life. ... I’ve been improving a lot. I’ve been improving myself, my routine, my release point. I think that made me feel real comfortable.”
The Cardinals (3-2) added their fourth run on a Dylan Carlson solo home run in the ninth off Richard Bleier.
Marlins vaccine plan
By the time the Marlins begin their first road trip of the season, all players and coaches on the team who want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine will have received at least their first dose.
The Marlins waited until Monday, when the age restriction for Florida residents to receive the vaccine dropped from 40 to 18, for players to start receiving the vaccine unless they previously qualified due to a health condition or live with someone who is in the medical field.
The team is having the players get the vaccine in waves in case players experience symptoms or reactions to the shot.
“It is something we still have to watch,” Mattingly said. “Obviously things are better in country and things like that. I think we’re all gonna feel a lot better once we’ve had multiple shots and both rounds of that.”
New uniform coming
The Marlins are one of seven MLB teams to participate in the league’s new “City Connect” uniform series this season. Each of the teams selected — the Marlins, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers — is partnering with Nike to create a uniform design that will “explore a franchise’s connection to its city and its fanbase, each with distinct personalities, values, customs and traditions,” according to a Nike release.
“It was front and center and this is why we did this deal. You take two iconic brands and you put them together and you have one and one make three,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden told ESPN. “This is what we expected, and this is what we wanted. This is the plan we always set out for.”
The Red Sox unveiled their uniform design on Tuesday, a yellow jersey with powder blue caps paying homage to the Boston Marathon. They will debut in a live game on April 17.
The Marlins’ design will be released closer to its anticipated debut date of May 21, when Miami hosts the New York Mets at loanDepot park.
Every MLB team is expected to have a City Connect uniform by the 2023 season.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 10:25 PM.
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