PITTSBURGH -- Don’t look now, but Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara appears to have gotten his groove back.
Alcantara tossed six scoreless innings and batterymate Nick Fortes went deep as the Marlins held on for a 3-2 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday night at PNC Park.
An economical Alcantara struck out six batters, walked one and allowed just three hits in an 85-pitch, 59-strike outing. He snapped a personal skid of seven straight losing decisions in his third quality start of the season, and second in a row, for his first win since April 12.
“Complete outing tonight from him,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “... Some of the swings the guys took, I think it shows the quality of the stuff, while also, I think, relentlessly pounding the strike zone. Back-to-back really good ones, and I thought that was even better than the one he just had against Colorado, just from an overall execution. The quality of the secondary pitches, he was able to get a lot of misses. Great outing by Sandy, and we needed it.”
Pittsburgh made Alcantara work around traffic in each of his first three frames with nothing to show for it. Alcantara’s most impressive escape act came in a 24-pitch third, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off with a double. Three batters later, with two outs and Kiner-Falefa on third, Alcantara walked Bryan Reynolds. He then fell behind in the count, 2-0, to left-handed-hitting Spencer Horwitz before working back to a full count and getting an inning-ending flyout.
In previous starts, like on Opening Day when Alcantara took a no-hitter into the fifth against the Bucs in his return from Tommy John surgery, things quickly unraveled in an inning. Alcantara didn’t allow that to happen Tuesday, retiring the final 10 batters he faced from Horwitz and on.
“Be more patient,” Alcantara said. “Doesn't matter who I’ve got on base. I know that the hitters have been very aggressive for me when they get on base, but I'm just trusting my stuff and trying to get outs.”
Entering Tuesday, Alcantara’s 7.89 ERA was the highest in the Majors among 113 pitchers with at least 50 innings. Two big reasons for his struggles stemmed from his numbers with runners on base (1.060 OPS) and against lefties (.877 OPS).
But over his last two starts, Alcantara has looked more like himself. He has given up just two runs over 12 innings (1.50 ERA), striking out 10 and walking just two.
“You can't,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said of not overlooking Alcantara. “That's what we talked about before the game. He's got the [Cy Young Award] for a reason. He can be one of the best pitchers in the league and he showed that tonight, mixing it up. He did a really great job."
It would be easy to dismiss Alcantara’s results since they have come against the Rockies (MLB’s lowest-scoring club) and Pirates (second-lowest), but it’s more about how Alcantara has pitched rather than his opponent.
The 29-year-old Alcantara has been more aggressive and thrown more strikes. Alcantara’s turnaround can also be credited to the development of his curveball, which he threw 31.8% of the time. He leaned heavily on his fastballs, combining for 42.4% between the four-seamer and sinker. Plus, Alcantara recorded two of his strikeouts on his trusty changeup.
“We're just trying to get his secondary stuff a little more acclimated in the game early on, and he was doing a good job landing it and making them count,” Fortes said. “So he definitely did a good job executing what we wanted to do.
“He's been doing a lot better getting the fastball more glove side and getting in on guys a little bit more, especially with righties as well, getting the sinker in on their hands, and just being able to use both sides of the plate with his fastball. And then, like I said, pair that with good secondary execution. It's helped him a lot.”
Alcantara received early support on Fortes’ two-run homer in the third against righty Mitch Keller. Fortes entered the game 2-for-his-last-22, which included a stretch of 18 consecutive at-bats without a hit until Saturday. It was his first long ball since May 20. Eric Wagaman added a two-out RBI single in the fourth that proved to be the difference.
“It's been a long time without winning the game,” Alcantara said, “so very happy and proud of myself, to be patient, to be hard-working every day. [It] doesn't matter the circumstance. Feel very happy with the way that I’ve competed my last two outings.”