Alcantara has his best start in 2025, but Marlins have their three-game winning streak snapped
Sandy Alcantara delivered his first quality start of the 2025 season on Wednesday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to secure a win as the Marlins dropped their series finale to the Cincinnati Reds, 5–2, at loanDepot park. The loss snapped Miami’s season-long three-game winning streak.
Making his fifth regular-season start since returning from Tommy John surgery, Alcantara navigated through several high-leverage situations and tossed a season-high 103 pitches through six innings. The right-hander allowed five hits, three earned runs, walked two, and struck out four — marking the first time this year he completed six full innings.
“I needed to get back to ‘Sandy Mode,’” Alcantara said postgame. “Velocity, groundballs, strike one, and more attacking.”
The outing marked a step forward for the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner, particularly after a rough previous start in which he allowed six earned runs in just two innings against Philadelphia — statistically the second-worst outing of his MLB career. Encouragingly, Alcantara’s fastball velocity was back in line with his pre-injury form, averaging 97.8 mph and topping out at 99.6 mph.
Despite his uneven start to the season, Alcantara’s velocity and ground ball rate is on par with where it was during 2022. The Marlins coaching staff has continued to express confidence that the results will soon even themselves out.
“I sat with my pitching coach for a couple of minutes and told him I was watching video from my 2022 season and seeing the success I had,” Alcantara said. “It all starts with throwing first-pitch strikes and keeping the ball on the ground.”
In a subtle-but-notable change, Alcantara opted not to use the PitchCom device to call his own pitches for the first time this season. “I had to change something,” he said with a smile.
Alcantara leaned heavily on his changeup against Cincinnati, throwing it 34.3% of the time. He also mixed in his sinker (23.5%), four-seam fastball (22.5%), and slider (11.8%) to keep Reds hitters off balance.
“I always have a great changeup, so I think the work that I put into my breaking ball is giving that pitch some success,” Alcantara added.
Though his ERA remains elevated at 6.56, the Marlins are confident their ace is trending in the right direction.
“I thought he threw a ton of strikes, got through six to give us a quality start in what was a good start. Very, very encouraging,” said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough.
Offensively, the Marlins struck early with a two-run homer from Matt Mervis in the first inning. Acquired in the offseason trade that sent Vidal Bruján to Chicago, Mervis continues to impress. His seven home runs are tied for third in the National League.
After Mervis’ early blast, however, Cincinnati’s pitching staff held Miami in check, limiting the Marlins to just three singles during the final eight innings.
Miami fell to 11-13 on the season and will travel to Seattle to begin a three-game set against the Mariners on Friday.