After brief scare, Sandy Alcantara dominant again in Marlins shutout win over Nationals
Midway through the Miami Marlins’ 3-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday, there was reason to be concerned. Heck, Don Mattingly was still worried four innings later. Until he knew Sandy Alcantara wasn’t going back out to the mound again, until the 26-year-old starting pitcher was back in the dugout for good, the manager was going to have some sense of hesitation on this night.
The reason: The final out of the fourth inning, a hard-hit ground ball from the Nationals’ Juan Soto, ricocheted off Alcantara’s left knee, bouncing straight to Lewin Diaz at first base. The play capped yet another perfect inning from the Marlins’ ace.
But it nearly knocked Alcantara out of the game right there. He walked gingerly back to the visitor’s dugout at Nationals Park.
“I thought really that was going to be the end of it,” Mattingly said.
Alcantara, determined to throw a complete game every time he steps on the mound, wasn’t giving up that easily.
“Donnie came to me and told me ‘You’re done,’” Alcantara said. “I said ‘No chance.’”
About 10 minutes later, Alcantara was back on the mound. He threw warm-up pitches with Mattingly, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. and head athletic trainer Gene Basham watching before receiving words of encouragement from shortstop and team captain Miguel Rojas.
And then, Alcantara fired a 97.3 mph sinker to Josh Bell and went on with his latest dominant start.
He ended up throwing eight innings of one-hit, shutout baseball on 96 pitches. Alcantara struck out seven, allowed just seven balls to leave the infield and allowed just two baserunners.
“Sandy was unbelievable,” Marlins catcher Alex Jackson said. “I mean, the confidence that he has on the mound, day-in and day-out and in the way he prepares, it shows. He’s a workhorse.”
Alcantara said he felt “just a little bit” of pain as he continued through the game, but any sort of injury — regardless of the severity — is one Mattingly wants to avoid when it comes to his ace.
Mattingly understands Alcantara’s competitive nature, but he also knows there’s a balance between being uber competitive and potentially being reckless — especially when pitching four innings after being hit by a ball that had an exit velocity of 111.5 mph.
“I wasn’t going to feel good,” Mattingly said, “until he was honestly out of that game. That would have been a nightmare for me. Personally, I wouldn’t want to live with that. I wouldn’t want Sandy to live with that, doing something that would hurt this kid.”
So Mattingly checked on Alcantara after every scoreless inning he threw.
After his 11-pitch fifth inning? Alcantara was feeling good.
After his 14-pitch sixth inning, the one that saw his perfect game foiled when Keibert Ruiz led off the inning by reaching on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. fielding error at second base? Alcantara was feeling good.
After his 19-pitch seventh inning, the one that saw his no-hitter bid end when Bell lifted Alcantara’s 82nd pitch of the night, a slider low in the strike zone, to the wall in right field for a two-out single? Alcantara, still, was feeling good.
And after his six-pitch eighth inning? Alcantara felt ready to pitch that final inning.
The opportunity didn’t come. Mattingly had Joe Panik pinch-hit for Alcantara in the ninth in an attempt to keep tacking on after Miami (61-83) opened the frame with three consecutive hits — a Lewis Brinson single, Diaz double and Jackson two-run double. A Jesus Sanchez RBI single in the first that scored Chisholm served as Miami’s only run before that inning.
Mattingly did note, however, that he would have let Alcantara pitch the ninth on a short leash — he wasn’t going to face Soto again, who was due up fourth in the frame — had his spot in the order not come up to bat in the top of the ninth. Instead, Dylan Floro worked around a leadoff single in the ninth by getting a double play and groundout to cap the shutout and record his 11th save of the season.
“That’s a difficult spot when you’re in our situation,” Mattingly said. “You have this kid in your hands in a sense. You’re worried about his family and everything else that’s going to happen in the future, which is is bright, and you don’t want to affect that.”
Alcantara’s bright future has been on full display over this season as he continues his transformation into a bonafide ace.
Since his clunker on Aug. 6 against the Colorado Rockies — a start in which Alcantara gave up a career-high 10 runs in 3 2/3 innings — Alcantara has pitched to a 1.55 ERA with 64 strikeouts against seven walks in 52 1/3 innings over his past seven starts.
He threw at least seven innings while allowing two runs or fewer in five of his six starts in August.
In his previous start on Wednesday, Alcantara threw nine innings of one-run ball in a game the Marlins won in extra innings.
And on Monday, even with a brief scare, Alcantara continued to find a way to elevate his game.
International scouting department shakeup
Fernando Seguignol has been relieved of his role as the Marlins’ international scouting director, but the organization hopes to keep him on staff in a to-be-determined reassigned role, sources confirmed to the Miami Herald on Monday.
As of pregame Monday, Seguignol had not made a decision about whether he plans to stay with the organization, according to sources. It is also not immediately clear why Seguignol was removed from his international scouting director role, a position he has held since November 2017. Decisions on a replacement for Seguignol also have not yet been made.
During his time with the Marlins, Seguignol has overseen all aspects of international operations. This includes scouting, player development and operation of the Marlins’ academy in the Dominican Republic.
Six of the Marlins’ current top-30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline were signed as international free agents under Seguignol’s tenure: Right-handed pitcher Eury Perez (No. 7, signed in 2019), Jose Salas (No. 10, signed in 2019), Yiddi Cappe (No. 15, signed in 2021), Victor Mesa Jr. (No. 18, signed in 2018), Ian Lewis (No. 26, signed in 2019) and Cristhian Rodriguez (No. 29, signed in 2018).
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 9:43 PM.
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