MIAMI -- Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara made the long walk from the dugout to the bullpen to a chorus of cheers past the midway point of Sunday afternoon’s 10-3 victory over the Cubs at loanDepot park.
Alcantara, who leads the Majors in starts, innings and quality starts, was gearing up for a possible save situation on his in-between starts bullpen day. The only times Alcantara had served as a reliever were in September 2017 as a Cardinal during his first big league stint.
Talk about coming out of left field, where the bullpen is fittingly located, huh?
It was an idea manager Clayton McCullough proposed to Alcantara pregame, and one that the 2022 National League Cy Young winner didn’t hesitate in agreeing to.
With the Marlins being aggressive pulling starters, especially of late, and playing catch-up in the NL Wild Card standings, the organization is going with an all-hands-on-deck approach to defying the odds.
Right-hander Janson Junk provided a scoreless eighth inning to pick up the hold in a 4-0 victory over the Red Sox on Aug. 26 with a heavily depleted bullpen. Depending on whether the Marlins stick in the playoff picture and how guys are feeling, this could come up again.
“He wants to win. He wants to win here,” McCullough said of Alcantara. “I just think that speaks to our group. We still have an uphill battle ahead of us, but everyone in there believes that we can go get this done, and that to get that done is maybe going to require all of us to be as open-minded, as flexible, and trying to make that a reality.”
Miami didn’t need to use Alcantara, who will start Tuesday’s game against the Mets, because six different Marlins drove in at least one run. Heriberto Hernández and Javier Sanoja went deep as Miami (72-72) returned to .500 with 18 games remaining but stayed four games behind Arizona (76-68) for the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
The Marlins jumped out to a 2-0 lead against righty Clay Holmes in the second, when Jakob Marsee singled and Hernández walked. Following a double steal, Joe Mack produced an RBI groundout and Otto Lopez added an RBI single.
In the fourth, Hernández knocked a solo shot for his team-leading 24th homer of the season, but the Cubs scratched across a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings against righty Tyler Phillips to tie the game at 3.
Phillips, who began the season as a reliever before joining the rotation in late May because of injuries, wasn’t particularly pleased with his second consecutive five-inning start. He was, however, quick to wax poetic on Alcantara’s selflessness and leadership by example.
“Everybody loves analytics,” Phillips said. “Everybody loves stuff and whatever it is. … Something that people can't measure analytically is the guy's balls and what he's got in his heart. And I'm sorry, that's the lack of better terms. Like the guy goes out there and begs for the ball, and that's something that I see every day.
"He comes in, he takes care of business every single day, and that's something that you can't teach. It's something that's in his heart, it's in his mind, it's in his huevos, and I love it, man. I love it. I love seeing what he's able to do. I love seeing how he handles situations, and for him to go out there and just be willing to do whatever, it's really cool to see.”
Miami’s bats, which had scored three or fewer runs in half of its 30 contests since the Trade Deadline, broke the game open with a much-needed five-run fifth.
Graham Pauley walked, Sanoja singled and Kyle Stowers walked to load the bases. Griffin Conine got hit by a pitch to score a run before Owen Caissie, whom the Marlins acquired from the Cubs in a trade this past January, drove in a pair on a ground ball to right. Hernández and Mack tacked on an RBI single apiece.
Sanoja later ambushed former Marlin Colin Rea’s first-pitch sinker for a two-run homer in the seventh to cap the scoring.
“When you see a guy like Sandy going to the bullpen trying to close the game, it speaks for itself in that situation,” Hernández said via interpreter Luis Dorante. “It tells you that every game right now is very important. It's a step closer to the playoffs, and it tells you the importance of all the games that we're playing -- that we have to win a lot of these games to make it to the postseason.”