Sánchez hot atop order; Anderson surgery

WASHINGTON -- Jesús Sánchez struck out swinging in the first inning of Tuesday night's game against the Nationals, a rare occurrence of late for the Marlins rookie.

Sánchez entered hitting .317 with six homers and a 1.158 OPS when facing the starting pitcher for the first time in a game. He had collected hits in three of the past four, with homers in two of those contests. In Monday's series opener, Sánchez collected an RBI single.

The 23-year-old, however, sees his splits dip over the course of a game.

Those are as follows:
Starter, second time (43 PA): .250/.302/.325 with a .627 OPS
Starter, third time (28 PA): .167/.286/.208 with a .494 OPS
Reliever, first time (45 PA): .215/.282/.477 with a .759 OPS
Reliever, second time (3 PA): .333/.333/.333 with a .667 OPS
Reliever, third time (1 PA): .000/.000/.000 with a .000 OPS

"If the first one can be good, he's basically got the influence throughout the whole day," manager Don Mattingly said. "It doesn't really change until the pitcher changes. You have an idea of what you want to do with the guy making adjustments in the game, how they're pitching you that day. I don't think there's any big secret to the first at-bat, third at-bat. It's more about having a game plan, and once you have success on a pitch in a game, you feel like the guy's not going to exactly do the same thing. He's going to try to do something different to get you out.

"You're always playing that little game within the game. And he did. Yesterday, I thought his second at-bat he was trying to go the other way. They were going to try and pitch him away, [and he] drove the ball to left field. I just think he's just going to get better as a hitter from the standpoint of just playing that game right there."

Brushing it off
Sandy Alcantara, who took a 111.5 mph comebacker from Juan Soto off his left knee during Monday night's fourth inning, was doing well on Tuesday, according to Mattingly. Alcantara remained in the game, taking a no-hitter into the seventh and pitching eight frames in a 3-0 victory.

"Just a little sore, tender over the spot that he got hit," Mattingly said. "It seems like him and us and we as an organization kind of dodged a bullet there with him, anything serious or anything going on with that."

Under the knife
Brian Anderson underwent surgery to repair his left shoulder capsule on Tuesday. Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache performed the procedure. The club expects Anderson to be ready for Spring Training.

Anderson aggravated his left shoulder subluxation diving for a ball on Aug. 31 in New York.

"I think once he hurt it again -- we had taken the conservative route and it proved to be effective for a while -- but obviously, the shoulder, it just couldn't sustain something like that again," general manager Kim Ng said Tuesday. "It was in his best interests. We want that for the player. I think he just wanted to get it taken care of, considering where we are in the season, and making sure that he comes back next year ready to go."