Luzardo outduels ex-rotation mate Alcantara; Marlins drop fifth straight

MIAMI—Two short years ago, the pitching matchup in Saturday afternoon's middle game between the Marlins and division-rival Phillies would have struck many as unimaginable. Sandy Alcantara and Jesús Luzardo were the respective ace and number two atop a stellar Miami rotation during their 2023 playoff campaign. Alas, following a calamitous 2024 season, the club decided to ship Luzardo north.

Saturday was a solid showing from both flamethrowers, who twirled six frames apiece, although Luzardo and the Phillies prevailed, 4-2.

"He did great today," Alcantara said of his teammate of three seasons. "He won the battle, so I don't feel good about it, but I feel good for him, because I have had him for a couple of years. I know the way he competes. Tremendous job by Luzardo today."

Plagued by soft contact all afternoon, Alcantara persevered to his fourth consecutive outing reaching the sixth.

Outside of a first-inning long ball off the bat of Phillie superstar Bryce Harper, Alcantara only ran into trouble in the fourth, where three of the base hits he forfeited were all struck below 85 mph. When asked by manager Clayton McCullough how he felt with 94 pitches following the fifth, Miami's ace gave as on-brand of a response as you'd expect.

"Always, always I feel good. It doesn't matter how many pitches I got. He gave me the opportunity to go back out there in the sixth and I was executing my best stuff out there."

"For him to still be able to get through six innings and have the baseball game where it was when he went out, we needed that start today to get that type of length," said his manager. "So for me, it's another really good outing from from Sandy."

Alcantara utilized his five-pitch arsenal fairly evenly, throwing each offering at least fifteen times, while leaning on his changeup and curveball the most. He registered ten whiffs, with his four-seam responsible for four.

During this outing, Alcantara surpassed 900 strikeouts in his Marlins career, which only Ricky Nolasco had previously done. Sunday will be his 30th birthday.

In contrast to the man he once played second fiddle to, Luzardo relied heavily on his revamped sweeper all day—and for good reason. The southpaw tossed the spinner a remarkable 48% of the time, collecting ten of his fourteen whiffs with the pitch in addition to six of his eight punchouts.

Miami was only able to get to the hometown kid in the aforementioned fourth, courtesy of an Eric Wagaman double and Javier Sanoja infield single.

When Luzardo previously pitched against the Fish this season, the opposing starters were Connor Gillispie and Cal Quantrill, neither of whom overlapped with him in South Florida.

Postgame, Luzardo had high praise for his former teammate.

"Sandy is a great leader and a great pitcher over there, so it was great," he said when asked what going opposite Alcantara was like. "I like going to battle. So, just my hat's off to him. It was fun."

McCullough's group aims to avoid a sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1:40. Miami has yet to announce a starting pitcher for what will be a bullpen game.