MIAMI -- Asked pregame where he thought Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara was on a scale of being "back", pitching coach Daniel Moskos gave a respectable score of seven or eight.
There’s clearly more in the tank, but it’s hard not to be pleased with Alcantara’s pitching over the past month.
Alcantara recorded another quality start and Kyle Stowers broke a homerless drought in Sunday afternoon’s 5-3 win over the Braves at loanDepot park. It marked Miami’s first series victory over Atlanta since September 2023, when the Marlins marched toward a National League Wild Card series berth.
“Always nice to win a series, especially at home, and particularly when you feel like you know you’ve played well enough to win, maybe even more on this [3-4] homestand,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “We did a lot of good things and could have been different, but it wasn't, but good to get one today, win the series before we head out west.”
It was Alcantara who set the tone, continuing his recent solid stretch by allowing three runs over six innings to tally his third quality start of the month. He struck out four and walked two in a 95-pitch outing.
Over his last four starts -- all this month -- Alcantara has a 2.74 ERA with 19 strikeouts and eight walks in 23 innings. Prior to this stretch, his 8.47 ERA through his first 11 starts was the highest among Major Leaguers with at least 50 innings thrown.
“Two things jump out to me: Execution has been improving, ability to execute his best shapes in most advantageous locations for himself, and then just making sure that he keeps the whole mix in play, whole arsenal in play,” Moskos said before the game. “To right-handed hitters, he's cut down on some of the fastball usage, brought in some more breaking balls. So that's been encouraging to see as well. Just trying to keep guys off-balance.”
Atlanta ambushed Alcantara from the get-go, as both Ronald Acuña Jr. (double) and Matt Olson (flyout to left) jumped on first pitches. With the infield drawn in and one out, the ball got under shortstop Otto Lopez’s glove for Austin Riley’s RBI knock.
So Alcantara adjusted, being more aggressive in the zone, turning to his breaking balls against a lineup that struggles against them and utilizing his four-seamer. Opponents have hit just .056 (1-for-18 with eight strikeouts) against that pitch in June. They had hit his heater at a .345 clip with four homers entering this month.
After the first two batters reached in the third, Alcantara struck out the next two (Riley and Marcell Ozuna) but gave up an RBI single to rookie Drake Baldwine. Alcantara then retired eight consecutive batters until Baldwin walked with one out in the sixth. Following an Ozzie Albies hit, Atlanta trimmed the deficit to 4-3 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI forceout.
Earlier in the season, Alcantara would’ve let the inning get away from him and been chased. But as he distances himself from his Tommy John surgery, so too does he gain distance from the atypical struggles.
“A lot of confidence,” Alcantara said. “Try to not go too many pitches for an at-bat, try to be more aggressive in the zone. Use my two-seam. And, yeah, my two-seam was great today. Throwing where I want to throw it, and great execution.”
Alcantara received support from across the lineup, starting with Kyle Stowers lifting his first homer since May 14 -- a game-tying solo shot to straightaway center in the second. Stowers’ club-lead-tying 11th home run of the season came on a center-cut sinker from righty Bryce Elder.
In his first 40 games, Stowers was batting .300 with 10 long balls and 29 RBIs. Over his next 31 games entering the series finale, he was hitting .228 with 5 RBIs.
Miami took its first lead in the fifth and didn’t relinquish it when Jesús Sánchez tripled and Lopez collected his second RBI single hit for his first multi-RBI game since June 6. Dane Myers later added a two-out RBI knock to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Xavier Edwards capped the scoring with a bloop RBI single in the sixth.
“I’ve always been confident and patient on what I can do out there,” Alcantara said. “So [the] first couple outings of the season was [me] being [in] trouble. But I never gave up. I know we’ve got another opportunity [the] next day. It's been amazing that I'm back now. Feel very happy and proud of myself, the way that I've been working. We don't stop, the way that I've been patient, waiting for my moment, very happy and proud of myself.”