JUPITER, Fla. -- If things had played out differently, Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara would have taken the mound to start the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday night instead of a Grapefruit League game.
When the Dominican Republic lost to the United States on Sunday night, however, plans changed. Alcantara returned to big league camp on Tuesday, striking out five Mets and allowing two runs over a spring-high four innings in a 5-5 tie.
Alcantara will close out the Spring Training schedule with five ups on Sunday ahead of his franchise-leading sixth Opening Day start on March 27 against the Rockies at loanDepot park.
“After we got eliminated, I just texted my pitching coach [Daniel Moskos] right away that I want to pitch on Tuesday,” Alcantara said. “... We are on time to be ready for Opening Day. Everything feels good. I’m healthy. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow. And other than that, everything feels good.”
Here are some additional notes from Tuesday:
Plan for Classic players
All but one Marlin on the 40-man roster is back from competing in the World Baseball Classic: Javier Sanoja, whose Venezuelan team will face the U.S. in Tuesday night’s final.
Catcher Agustín Ramírez (Dominican Republic) and outfielder Owen Caissie (Canada) joined Alcantara in returning Tuesday.
Ramírez started twice as the DR’s backup catcher, finishing 1-for-6 with an RBI double. He started at catcher on Tuesday (0-for-3, six innings on defense) and will follow that up as the DH on Wednesday night.
“My thing is take a couple more at-bats here and [get] behind the plate, too, and I'm ready,” Ramírez said. “After that competition, I'm ready right now for Opening Day.”
Caissie, who played seven innings in left field and walked twice on Tuesday, was the last of the Canadians to return to spring action. In five games for Canada -- four of which took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the other coming in the quarterfinal in Houston -- he went 7-for-17 (.412) with three doubles, one homer and five RBIs.
“Just be on time and hit the ball,” Caissie said. “That's really it.”
Since Liam Hicks served as Canada’s backup catcher, collecting just three at-bats, he started back-to-back contests on Sunday (at catcher) and Monday (as DH) before getting Tuesday off.
Otto Lopez started all five of Canada’s games at shortstop, going 5-for-19 (.263). Lopez homered in his first at-bat back on Monday and started for a second straight game on Tuesday.
Center fielder Jakob Marsee returned to camp during Tuesday’s game after Italy lost to Venezuela in Monday night’s semifinal. Since Marsee tied for the most starts (six) by an outfielder in the Classic entering Tuesday, he might sit out until Friday’s split-squad.
“He played pretty much every game,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “They've had some off-days, but he's played every game. They've been very intense. So if it makes more sense for Mars to have tomorrow off as well, and get the off-day, he's ready for the season.”
Max Meyer on the mend
One drawback of Miami’s pitch design sessions: The possibility of comebackers.
Meyer, who is projected to make the Opening Day rotation, got hit on the left hamstring in his most recent session. There was no concern from the medical group or Meyer after he threw on Tuesday to see how he felt. Instead of starting Wednesday night's Grapefruit League game in West Palm Beach, however, he will toss four innings in a Minor League contest in Jupiter to better control his workload.
Left-hander Braxton Garrett will start on Wednesday as he tries to earn a spot on the roster coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Connor Norby at first
Norby, who debuted at first base on Saturday, started there again on Tuesday. The decision was two-fold for McCullough: Norby would receive more game experience at first, and primary first baseman Christopher Morel would get time in the outfield. Both committed errors on routine plays Tuesday.
Norby will make his outfield debut in one of Friday’s split-squad games. While Norby saw time in the corner outfield in the O’s system, he had never played first until Saturday.
“You'd love to give all of them 70 innings at all these different positions, it's just the calendar doesn't allow for that,” McCullough said pregame. “Connor will get at least these two starts at first base. We'll see what the last three or four days look like. Will that be enough? No, but at least with the work they're putting in, at least they got some game reps. If that eventually does come to pass, where they need to go over there or start there, that has at least touched it a little bit.”