Sandy Alcantara keeps giving the Marlins exactly what they need, even when the outing doesn’t end with a win.
On Friday in Cincinnati, the 30-year-old right-hander turned in another sturdy performance in a 1-0 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park, stretching his case as a dark horse in the National League Cy Young Award race. He worked seven innings, allowed just one run, and once again found a way to miss barrels without piling up strikeouts.
That’s been the theme all season. Alcantara has now delivered a quality start in 19 of his 26 outings, and Friday was another example of how he can keep damage to a minimum even when the strikeout stuff isn’t overwhelming.
He recorded only five swings-and-misses, and his two strikeouts didn’t come until his 94th and 100th pitches. Still, the Reds could do little with what they put in play: only five of their 22 balls in play against him were hard-hit.
With 130 strikeouts in a league-leading 170 2/3 innings, Alcantara’s profile doesn’t look like the typical Cy Young finalist’s. He doesn’t need it to. The 6-foot-5 righty has built his season on run prevention, not gaudy punchout totals, and his ERA dropped to 3.43 after Friday’s outing.
“I don't care about a strikeout,” Alcantara said. “I know as soon as I got to the big leagues that I don't get that many strikeouts. I just need to worry about pitching and going deep in the game and always give a chance for my team to win the game."
His scoreless run reached 25 innings, matching his career high, before it ended in the sixth inning on a play that went awry in left field. Heriberto Hernández misplayed a line drive off the bat of Eugenio Suárez, and a run crossed.
That came after Alcantara had already put together a 20-inning scoreless streak across his first three starts, making him the only pitcher this year with two separate scoreless runs of at least 20 innings. The last pitchers to do that in a season were Nathan Eovaldi in 2023 and Alcantara himself during his 2022 Cy Young season.
“He's a fierce competitor,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “Now we're seeing the level of execution, the roll he's been on, how he's able to move the fastball to both sides of the plate, the type of action he gets on the changeup, and then now with the confidence he has in there to throw the multiple breaking balls, use the cutter to both sides.
"This guy knows how to win. He knows how to go out there and get outs.
He understands where he is in moments of games and when he needs to step on it. What's been just so impressive to watch is the level of execution that he's had, really, for the last two-plus months.”
Alcantara also liked what he got from his two-seamer, which drew chase on more than 60 percent of pitches out of the zone. When the Reds did square it up, they didn’t do much with it, going just 2-for-17. Opponents have posted only a .294 wOBA against the pitch, which ranked 49th out of 177 pitchers with at least 50 plate appearances.
Even with all that, Alcantara still sits on the outside of the Cy Young conversation, where Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Sánchez and Chris Sale have the kind of microscopic ERAs, FIPs and strikeout totals that tend to grab attention. But Alcantara has put himself in the mix anyway. He’s one of 11 National League pitchers with at least 3 fWAR, and his season has become a serious bounceback after missing 2024 following Tommy John surgery and posting a 5.36 ERA in 2025.
He’s also doing something especially valuable in 2026: eating innings. Alcantara is on pace to sail past 200 innings for the third time in his career by mid-September, a workload that has helped stabilize the Marlins’ bullpen and keep their playoff hopes alive.
“Some of the other guys are having terrific years,” McCullough said. “Sandy's been phenomenal.
He should be [in the race] when you look at it. Wins still matter because you've got to be out there a lot of times for the game to be decided, and, certainly, the amount of innings he's able to pile up, how he's suppressed runs this year, he's having a really phenomenal season.
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