Sandy Alcantara kept dealing Friday night, but the Marlins’ winning streak finally ran out at loanDepot Park.
Cleveland slipped past Miami 3-2 in front of 15,565 fans, handing the Marlins their first defeat since July 2 and ending Alcantara’s seven-game run of victories. Even in the loss, the right-hander looked sharp in his final start before the All-Star break, working seven innings, allowing three runs, and striking out eight.
That outing gave Alcantara his MLB-leading 14th quality start of the season. He heads into the break with a 3.99 ERA and a major league-best 130 ⅔ innings pitched.
A year ago at this time, the picture looked nothing like this. Alcantara was coming off Tommy John surgery and had opened last season 4-9 with a 7.22 ERA through his first 18 starts.
"This year feels much different, but more so because of how great we've been doing," Alcantara said postgame. "My mentality has also changed a lot. The way I've been attacking hitters this year and going deep into games has really helped."
He also pointed to the cutter as a big reason for his success.
"It's been a great pitch. I don't think some of the hitters know I have that yet, so I've been getting a lot of swing-and-miss," he said with a chuckle.
Alcantara used the pitch 20% of the time on Friday and got whiffs on half of those cutters.
"He finished up the first half terrifically," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said postgame. "This run we've been on, he's played a huge part in it because you know every fifth or sixth day you're getting at least six strong innings and a chance to win a game."
Alcantara’s final line: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 8 SO, 0 BB.
With another strong outing in the books, there’s at least a case to be made that Miami’s ace deserves a look for the National League All-Star roster if another pitcher is needed at the last moment.
Miami’s offense came from a pair of solo shots. Heriberto Hernández went deep for his 13th homer of the season, tying him for the team lead, while Leo Jiménez added his second homer in three games.
Hernández’s season has taken a sharp turn. After being optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville earlier this year, he was sitting on a .474 OPS through his first 22 games. Since being recalled on May 7, he’s slugging over .600 and owns a .940 OPS, which leads Marlins hitters over that stretch.
Jiménez’s power surge has come out of nowhere, too. He had gone homerless through his first 37 games before connecting again Friday, and his blast marked only the fifth home run by a Marlins third baseman all season.
Still, Miami couldn’t come through in the biggest spots. The Marlins finished hitless with runners in scoring position.
They’ll try to even the series Saturday afternoon with Eury Pérez on the mound.
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