As he slowly inches closer to his Cy Young form, the Marlins have seemingly found a way to win whenever Sandy Alcantara takes the mound this season.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the case Friday.<\/p>\n
Heading into Miami\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, the 30-year-old right-hander had an opportunity to tie a franchise record by earning a win in an eighth consecutive start, matching the mark set by left-hander Chris Hammond from May 26-July 2, 1993, and later matched by right-hander Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez from April 28-June 5, 2016.<\/p>\n
In his first loss since May, Alcantara actually pitched slightly better than his typical start this season, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we\u2019ve seen in the majority of his starts: him filling up the strike zone again, using both sides of the plate and executing very well,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a huge part of how we\u2019ve been able to play because every fifth or sixth day, he comes in and we know he\u2019s going to bank six innings or more and either leave us with the lead or give us a chance to take the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even MLB\u2019s foremost workhorse needs some help. The former Cy Young winner entered Friday leading the league in starts, innings pitched and batters faced, but Miami\u2019s offense struggled against Guardians All-Star left-hander Parker Messick.<\/p>\n
Home runs in consecutive innings from Heriberto Hernandez and Leo Jimenez gave the Marlins some life heading into the eighth, but Miami\u2019s four hits weren\u2019t enough. The Marlins had a chance to tie the game in the eighth, but Jakob Marsee was stranded at third.<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s top three hitters, MLB batting leader Otto L\u00f3pez, Xavier Edwards and Liam Hicks, were uncharacteristically quiet, combining to go 1 for 9 at the plate.<\/p>\n
Returning to form<\/p>\n
After having his 2023 season shut down in September and missing the entire 2024 season following Tommy John surgery, Alcantara struggled in his return in 2025, finishing with a career-worst 5.36 ERA, 142 strikeouts and an 11-12 record as he adjusted to pitching again after nearly two years away.<\/p>\n
Now sitting at 10-5 with a 3.99 ERA and on pace for 171 strikeouts, Alcantara might not be back in the discussion among the league\u2019s top pitchers yet, but the strides have been obvious this season.<\/p>\n
The Dominican native has handled MLB\u2019s heaviest workload and, at one point, was one of just two healthy starting pitchers remaining in Miami\u2019s rotation<\/p>\n
.\u201cI remember coming in here last year talking about bad games,\u201d Alcantara said. \u201cMy mentality changed a lot. The way I\u2019ve been attacking hitters and going deep into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Max Meyer earning his first All-Star selection and Eury P\u00e9rez showing his growth in a near-perfect outing last weekend, Alcantara\u2019s gradual return to form should give Miami reason to feel encouraged about its rotation, even in a loss.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/p>\n
The Marlins continue their three-game series against the Guardians on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. at loanDepot park.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Eury P\u00e9rez (5-6, 3.84 ERA) is scheduled to start for Miami against Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee (2-9, 4.06 ERA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As he slowly inches closer to his Cy Young form, the Marlins have seemingly found a way to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-336618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}