While Sandy Alcantara used Sunday to pad his Cy Young case — throwing his fifth complete game to hand Washington a 3-1 loss — the Nationals’ young lineup saw a pitcher who will become all too familiar in the coming years.
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara makes the youthful Nats look overmatched
Three of Washington’s seven hits were soft singles by designated hitter Luke Voit. Luis García brought in the lone run with a sacrifice fly on a high change-up. The Nationals tried to rally in the eighth, putting runners at second and third, before César Hernández lined out to end the threat. Beyond all of that, here’s how the four rookies fared:
Call (batting leadoff): 1 for 2 with a walk and hit by pitch.
Meneses (batting third): 0 for 4 with two strikeouts looking.
Abrams (batting seventh): 1 for 3 with a double.
Pineda (batting eighth): 0 for 3 with two strikeouts swinging.
“You got to be ready to hit every pitch,” said Nationals Manager Dave Martinez, who noted pregame how he wanted his team to be aggressive and avoid two-strike situations with Alcantara. “He made some good pitches, and you saw late in the game that he was throwing 101 [mph]. He pounds the strike zone with everything.”
For eight innings, the game was kept close by Aníbal Sánchez and the Nationals’ bullpen. But once Sánchez, Mason Thompson and Andres Machado took their turns, Jordan Weems yielded an insurance run in the ninth and wasn’t helped by his defense. Abrams made an ill-advised throw to grant another 90 feet to a runner who scored from third on a groundout. On that groundout, second baseman García threw wide of first when he had a chance to turn a double play.
Throughout that messy inning, no one got near the Marlins’ bullpen mounds. Alcantara then retired Meneses, García and Ildemaro Vargas to finish off the Nationals (51-95) for Miami (60-87). The series finale lasted 2 hours 27 minutes. Washington has yet to complete a series sweep and has just five more chances.
“He’s got so much run on his heater, then obviously he has his cutter/slider moving away,” Voit said of Alcantara, who had seven strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.37. “I came up with him, too [with the St. Louis Cardinals], so I kind of know how he pitches a little bit. Even though he broke my bat twice, I’ll take both those knocks any day.
“You just got to push him because if you try to pull him like I did on that one, you just roll over on it, and that’s why the guy was out there in the ninth inning. He throws strikes, and he gets soft contact.”
Sánchez, 38, has now been effective for a full month, allowing just five earned runs in his past 29⅓ innings. He issued two runs on two walks and four hits, including Garrett Cooper’s solo homer to start the sixth. Otherwise, Sánchez limited the Marlins with his usual mix of fastballs and change-ups, inducing five groundouts, eight flyouts and a pair of double plays. It was the second time this year that he completed six innings.
But when Sánchez exited, Alcantara had completed six frames on just 59 pitches. He struck out Victor Robles looking with a 100-mph sinker to cap the third. In the sixth, Call swung through a 101-mph sinker that tailed at the top of the zone. For most of the afternoon, Alcantara looked as if he were in a video game, dotting triple-digit heaters and change-ups that averaged 91.1 mph.
The average speed of Sánchez’s four-seam fastball Sunday: 89.8. Facing Alcantara complicates everything hitters learn about pitch recognition and their own timing.
“You’re getting ready for 99, 100 — and then all of a sudden you get a 94-mph change-up,” Martinez said. “Now his change-up moves — it dies, and it goes down. So it’s really hard to adjust.”
Why was Robles checked out by a trainer in the eighth? After singling to right against the shift, Robles rounded first base hard and stuck his right hand in the dirt to stop and turn around. That led to a jammed finger that the Nationals were going to assess after the defeat. Robles remained in the game, going first to third on a single and playing defense in the ninth.
Why is Washington undecided on Wednesday’s starter? The club is still weighing whether to pitch Josiah Gray on turn or to bump him to further manage the 24-year-old’s innings. If the Nationals choose the latter, Paolo Espino is a logical option to face the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. And while MacKenzie Gore would have the necessary rest for that matchup, Martinez is not considering him. Martinez said Gore, 23, needs to build more in rehab appearances before debuting for Washington.
Source: WP
