How Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara looked in first rehab outing since UCL sprain
Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara took the mound on Thursday with the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, his first time pitching in a live game since sustaining a UCL sprain in his right elbow almost three weeks ago.
Alcantara threw four shutout innings, giving up just one hit and striking out four against the Nashville Sounds, the Triple A affiliate for the Milwaukee Brewers. Alcantara threw 51 pitches, 34 of which were strikes.
His four-seam fastball, which he threw 22 times, topped out at 98.3 mph and averaged 95.8 mph. Alcantara mixed in every pitch in his arsenal, also throwing 10 sinkers, 10 changeups, six sliders and three curveballs on Thursday.
The outing conceivably puts the star right-handed pitcher on a path back to returning to the Marlins, who entered Thursday just a half-game out of the National League’s third and final wild card spot with nine regular-season games left to play.
If the Marlins keep Alcantara on regular rest, he could potentially make two more starts in the regular season: Tuesday against the New York Mets and Sunday in the regular-season finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
(Or, if the Marlins are confident they’ll make the playoffs, the option to reconfigure the rotation to line him up for Game 1 of the wild card series is an option, too.)
“With where we are in the season, he wants to get back,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said Monday. “He’s doing everything he can to get back. As far as when he gets back or what we see him or view him as [with his role], again, we’re gonna take this slow and take it day-by-day.”
Breaking down Sandy Alcantara’s rehab start
Alcantara needed just 13 pitches to record a scoreless inning, getting Garrett Mitchell and Jackson Chourio to hit into groundouts before striking out Jesse Winker to cap the perfect frame.
He was just as efficient in the second inning, needing 12 pitches to retire Joey Wiemer (lineout to center field, with Jake Mangum making a diving catch), Abraham Toro (flyout to center field) and Owen Miller (strikeout swinging on an elevated 95 mph fastball).
In the third, Alcantara got two more strikeouts in the third — getting Chris Roller to whiff on a two-strike curveball and Patrick Dorrian to swing through a changeup — before Brian Navarreto hit a flyout to center for an 11-pitch inning.
And in the fourth, he worked around a Chourio one-out single (the only baserunner he allowed) and stolen base by getting Winker to pop out and Wiemer to fly out.
Recapping Sandy Alcantara’s injury and rehab
Alcantara’s injury timeline has been well-established.
He went on the injured list on Sept. 6, three days after expressing arm discomfort following his start against the Washington Nationals on Sept. 3. Alcantara said he felt the pain on the final pitch he threw in that game — an 83.8 mph curveball to end the eighth inning.
He began playing catch on July 13 while the team was in Milwaukee for its four-game series against the Brewers before progressing to bullpens once the team returned to Miami.
And now, Alcantara has shown he can handle pitching in a live game.
“This is kind of uncharted waters,” Schumaker said Monday. “We have two weeks left. He’s coming off an elbow injury. He feels good today. He’s built different. I don’t think he’s like most guys.”
This is Alcantara’s first IL stint with the Marlins for an arm injury. He has been sidelined two other times in his Miami tenure, once in 2018 for an armpit infection and again in 2020 after testing positive for COVID-19. Alcantara also skipped one start earlier this season due to biceps tendinitis.
Alcantara, the 2022 National League Cy Young winner, has a 4.14 ERA through 184 2/3 innings. But his ERA has dropped to 3.20 in his 10 starts since the All-Star Break, a stretch in which he threw two complete games and pitched into the eighth inning four times.
This story was originally published September 21, 2023 at 8:56 PM.
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