MIAMI – A year ago, Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara often found himself unable to answer why he was struggling in his return from Tommy John surgery.
Despite Friday night’s 3-2 defeat to the Guardians at loanDepot park, Alcantara is in a much better place entering this All-Star break.
Alcantara allowed three runs, including a two-run homer to Chase DeLauter, across seven frames to record his MLB-leading 14th quality start of the season. He struck out a season-high-tying eight batters and increased his MLB lead for innings thrown (130 2/3) but took the tough-luck loss.
With his latest gem, Alcantara’s season ERA dropped to 3.99. It was an MLB-high 7.22 to end the first half in 2025, when Alcantara had just four quality starts – a statistic that usually showcased his dependability over the years.
His first half this year also included noteworthy accomplishments, such as becoming the franchise’s all-time strikeouts leader and the fifth active Dominican-born pitcher to reach 1,000 career K’s.
“[I’ve come] very far,” Alcantara said. “I remember last year I came here talking about bad games. This year, it feels more different because we’ve been doing so great since Opening Day, win games as a team, helping each other. Why can I not be happy this year knowing that everybody’s not perfect, especially in baseball? I’m very happy [with] the way I’ve been working out there.”
Alcantara began the series opener by throwing 19 of his first 20 pitches for strikes. His cutter, which is one of the newer offerings in his arsenal, tallied a game-high six whiffs.
Attacking the strike zone has played into Alcantara’s recent stretch of success. Over his final eight starts of the half, Alcantara has posted a 3.09 ERA. He has walked one or fewer batters in six of them.
“Outside of a couple blips this half, this has been kind of what we've seen almost with the majority of his starts is him again filling up the strike zone, executing very well, using both sides of the plate,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “This run we've been on, and how we've been able to play, he has been a huge part of that because every fifth or sixth day, he comes in there and you're going to almost bank six innings or more, either have the lead when he exits or be in a position to win. Proud of him.
“He came into this year very motivated to pick up where he left off last year, and he's done that this half.”
Despite a rough go of things in 2025, there were signs of this version of Alcantara returning. He compiled a 3.33 ERA and an average of 6.4 innings per start over his 13 second-half starts.
Though Friday snapped Alcantara’s career-high seven-game winning streak and the club’s season-high-tying six-game win streak, his performance continues to drive the narrative of Alcantara staying put and the surging Marlins being buyers at the Aug. 3 Deadline.
“He's shown a tremendous amount of growth,” pitching coach Daniel Moskos said last month in St. Louis. “There were times last year where he's in the middle of a rough start or a rough inning where he almost looked flustered on the mound, and you don't see that.
“You actually see him just get angry this year, which is a mentality and an emotion we've talked about leaning into a little bit more. 'You’re pretty good when you're angry and pissed off. I don't want it to be because you gave up two to three runs every single time, but if you can find a way to tap into that mentality from pitch one and keep it going, certainly seems like a beneficial thing for you,' because he has this uncanny ability to get stronger as games go.”