WEST SACRAMENTO -- Less than one month remains until the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, and if the Marlins keep playing at this high level, the front office will have tough decisions to make.
Sandy Alcantara, one of the names attached to frequent rumors, is pitching like an ace again. His ballclub, considered by outsiders to be a seller before the season began, is the hottest team in the Majors.
In his latest gem, Alcantara tossed eight innings, while All-Star Otto Lopez, Joe Mack and Kyle Stowers homered in Saturday night’s 7-2 win over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.
With the victory, Miami (48-42) returned to a season-high six games over .500 and remained one game back of a National League Wild Card spot. The only seasons in franchise history with more wins through 90 games: 2023 (51) and 1997 (52). Both of those clubs reached the postseason, with the latter capturing the World Series.
“My mind is [on] keep winning the game with my boys in there,” Alcantara said. “We've been doing so great this year. But if they made any decision, I'm just a player and I need to follow those decisions. But to me, it's great to stay in Miami, so I think it's a great city for me. I've been there all my career. If they give me an opportunity to be there for more [of a] long time, I'll take it.”
This was in response to comments chairman, principal owner and control person Bruce Sherman made on Marlins Radio prior to Friday’s win.
“He means everything,” Sherman said. “Sandy has been here the same number of years I've been here and the ownership group, the last eight years together. I have profound respect for Sandy. He's the ultimate professional. When you talk about the culture of this organization that Peter Bendix and Gabe [Kapler] and Clayton [McCullough] and all the people have created, he's part of that culture.
“He carries himself. He's fierce, he's quiet, he's loud when he has to be, and doesn't want to [just] win. It seems he wants to be the one who takes the ball every five days. I look forward to him taking the ball every five days. I missed him the year he was out with Tommy John [surgery], and he represents the very best of not only the Marlins, but he represents the very best of baseball.
“He's a humble guy. I've traveled with him. I text him occasionally, and I separate my fandom from my ownership, but he's just an extraordinary individual. He's our franchise icon, and for us, I look forward to many years in the future and what this all becomes.”
Alcantara, who became the first Marlins pitcher to go 6-0 in a calendar month since José Fernández (2016), extended his career-high win streak to seven to notch his 10th victory of the season.
Over those seven starts, Alcantara has posted a 2.98 ERA. He has seen his season ERA drop from 4.66 to 4.00 thanks to six quality starts during that span.
The 30-year-old allowed just one run on six hits with a season-high eight strikeouts on five different pitch types, one walk and one hit-by-pitch. He induced 11 groundouts and completed four innings on single-digit pitches in a 100-pitch outing.
Alcantara surpassed Phillies All-Star Cristopher Sánchez for most innings in MLB this season (123) and has thrown six-plus frames in an MLB-high 15 of his 19 starts this season.
“This was an exhibition by Alcantara,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He had everything going. He pitched to the bottom rail all night, kept the ball down, got it on the ground when he needed to, got punchouts when he needed to, threw the ball in with command, really. That’s how you pitch in this ballpark."
After slugging a season-high-tying five homers in Friday’s opener, the Marlins kept raking to support Alcantara.
Mack broke a scoreless deadlock in the third inning with a solo shot -- his third home run of the road trip. With two outs, Lopez lined a two-run homer for one of his three hits. Stowers’ third homer of the series -- a two-run dinger in the seventh -- traveled over the left-field wall with help from the wind.
The next 23 games could determine Miami’s Deadline strategy, but the organization should like its chances of contending with this version of Alcantara and All-Star Max Meyer fronting the rotation. Eury Pérez is putting it together and Janson Junk is close to returning.
“Those two have been the mainstays -- not only the quality, the wins, the innings,” McCullough said of Alcantara and Meyer. “It’s fun. Some friendly competition when two guys are going like that. Our whole group, the amount of confidence they have when they’re on the mound. They’ve been a real ticket allowing us to have a lot of flexibility on other days.”