'25 struggles behind him, Alcantara follows opening gem with a Maddux

MIAMI – Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara couldn’t ignore the narrative around him during a trying 2025. How could he not in the 21st century, with talking heads on TVs inside the clubhouse and doom scrolling of social media posts?

So Alcantara decided to change his mentality in his second season back from Tommy John surgery. He focused on staying healthy and competing every fifth day for his ballclub.

By doing so, Alcantara has regained his vintage form two starts into the 2026 season. He recorded his second career Maddux and fifth career shutout in Wednesday afternoon’s 10-0 victory over the White Sox at loanDepot park.

“I've been through a lot,” Alcantara said. “Not [a] great start of the season last year. Second half was good [enough] for me. A lot of people talked a lot of negative things about myself, and I just tried to not think too much about it and just be out there helping my teammates to win the game and do my best every fifth day.”

In terms of games played, this marks the earliest shutout and Maddux in a season since Nathan Eovaldi did so in the Rangers' sixth game last season. The most recent Maddux was the Cardinals’ Sonny Gray last June 27 at Cleveland (89 pitches).

As the longest-tenured Marlin, Alcantara continues to creep up the franchise leaderboard. He matched Kevin Brown for the third-most shutouts and pulled within one of A.J. Burnett for the second-most complete games (13). His 10th complete game since the start of 2022 is also two more than anyone else in MLB during that span.

“This is Sandy's day, and watching it in the ninth, standing up there, you just think back to the time since I've known Sandy, and it's been well-documented a ton how much of a struggle it was early for him last year and most of the year,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “So for him, he just never gives in. He just keeps competing. Today, I'm sure, maybe it feels a little more special than some of the other ones he's had, to be on the mound again in the ninth inning and finish out a shutout.”

The 30-year-old Alcantara, who hadn’t thrown a shutout since April 4, 2023, required just 93 pitches (69 strikes) to dispose of the young and aggressive White Sox lineup that began the game with two outs on two pitches. He permitted just three hits – all singles, including one of the bunt variety – and struck out seven batters.

After hitting Miguel Vargas with a pitch with two outs in the fourth, Alcantara retired 16 in a row until Luisangel Acuña’s two-out single in the eighth. He entered the ninth at just 84 pitches thanks to a five-pitch eighth.

Unlike Opening Day, when McCullough pulled Alcantara after just 73 pitches because he had no more than five “ups” in Spring Training, the decision was an easy one to send his ace back out there. McCullough gave Alcantara the thumbs up and received one in return.

With assistant pitching coach Rob Marcello calling pitches from the dugout, Alcantara shook him off just three times over the course of the game. When Alcantara fell behind 2-0 to Lenyn Sosa, he collected a popout on his new sweeper – a pitch he wanted to go back to after mislocating one earlier in the at-bat. Alcantara then threw three of his trademark changeups to strike out Andrew Benintendi and induced a game-ending groundout from Colson Montgomery on a 97.9 mph four-seamer.

"Sandy was really good,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “You’ve got to give him credit. I thought we came in with a good game plan. Guys were engaged and were competitive. We just got beat by a really good pitcher, and I think it's as simple as that. We just didn't have an answer for him. He had really good stuff. He pounded the zone, made [it] really tough on us to do anything. … [We] just never had a chance."

Through his first two starts of the season against the Rockies and White Sox, Alcantara has allowed one run (none earned) on seven hits across 16 frames with 12 strikeouts and just two walks.

This version of Alcantara bodes well for the Marlins after they narrowly missed out on the 2025 postseason despite him posting the second-highest ERA among qualifying starting pitchers. With Alcantara’s help, Miami has won five of its first six games for the first time since 2014 (excluding the COVID-impacted 2020 season) as it heads to the Bronx for a weekend set against the Yankees.

“It was fun, that's for sure,” said batterymate Liam Hicks, who leads the Majors with 12 RBIs after driving in four in the series finale. “He had a lot of pitches working, pretty much everything working. So when you're back there, when he's rolling like that, it's really cool to see, and makes your job catching really easy.”