Vintage Sandy still missing, limited to two innings in loss

[Kevin Barral]

Friday's start was one of the shortest of Sandy Alcantara's career.

Its now been four starts and the Miami Marlins are still searching for the Sandy of old. In a 7-2 loss, Sandy Alcantara was only able to complete two innings and surrendered six runs on four hits (one home run). He now has a 7.27 ERA this season and the Marlins fell to 8-11, losing their fourth straight.

"Got some two-strike counts and I think there was trouble putting guys away today," said manager Clayton McCullough. "He really ran the pitch count up early and then there were some pitches he just didn't execute as well and they were able to put some swings on it. Just the unfortunate nature of just getting a lot of those foul balls and inability to put them away when you had two strikes and for the pitch count to get up to where it was after a couple of innings."

To say the least, this was a concerning start for Alcantara. He's been known for his high ground ball rate, posting a career 50.7% ground ball rate and through the first three starts of this season, 65.1%. It was down to 33% on Friday night. He was also threw two wild pitches.

The Phillies offense wasted no time getting it going. In the bottom of the first inning, Bryce Harper took Alcantara deep for his fifth home run of the season, crushing it 418 feet to the second deck in right field. That was only the second time in his career that Harper has taken the Marlins ace deep.

In the second inning, Alcantara walked Max Kepler, allowed a base hit to former Marlin J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm knocked in the third Phillies run. Johan Rojas followed Bohm with an RBI single. After throwing his first wild pitch of the game, Alcantara gave up his fifth run on a Bryson Stott sacrifice fly. Alcantara allowed the sixth run on a wild pitch.

Most of the damage that Alcantara allowed came on 0-2 counts, including the Harper home run, Bohm's RBI and the second wild pitch. The Marlins ace attributes that to missing his spots. "I tried to go cutter up and in and just left it out there in the middle-middle and it was easy peasy for him," said Alcantara regarding the home run he gave up to Harper.

"If you're gonna find any kind of silver lining, I think we feel good about where the stuff is tonight," said McCullough. "It is more of an execution thing and just trying to put them away with two strikes."

Following the game, Alcantara expressed his frustration: "I don't feel happy about the job I've been doing the past couple of starts. I think it's time for me to get back into Sandy mode and just be out there every fifth day and do what I do."

Anthony Veneziano, a Hackettstown, New Jersey native—just an hour and 30 minutes away from Citizens Bank Park—came in relief of Alcantara. In front of friends and family, he went 2 ⅓ innings, allowing one run on a home run to Kyle Schwarber. He struck out two.

On the other side, Phillies ace Zack Wheeler turned in his best start of the season, striking out 13 through seven innings of work. He generated 20 whiffs, with 11 of them coming on his four-seam fastball. Four of his 13 strikeouts came on the sinker, three of them strikeouts looking.

"Early on, we talked about the fastball and how well it plays," said McCullough. "I think that we weren't able to take that away from him. Early on, he got a lead and was able to settle in there and get into a groove and then started to mix his pitches a little bit more."

The only run that Wheeler allowed came in the top of the sixth inning. Eric Wagaman took the Georgia native deep for his second home run of the season. It was a two-run shot to left center field, leaving the bat at 105.9 mph and going 427 feet. After a slow start to the season, Wagaman is now slashing .260/.339/.440/.779 with two home runs and six RBI.

The Marlins will look to bounce back on Saturday as Cal Quantrill will get the start. As for the Phillies, they will deploy Taijuan Walker who is off to a nice start in 2025. First pitch will be at 1:05 pm.

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[One Regend]

I missed the game entirely, so I didn't get to watch it. What were the velo readings on Sandy? This sounds like a statline where he's sitting 93. What even happened?

[Leo Armbrister]

I hope this outing kills all of the trade talk about Sandy. Let's figure out what is wrong and keep him. We have to build the team around some quality players and Sandy is a quality pitcher who is under contract. I don't know if the trade talk has anything to do with the poor performance but I don't think it is helpful.