Alcantara's 14-K, 9-inning gem: 'Just special'

MIAMI -- It was Sandy Alcantara’s hawk-like head tilt, the one he makes while looking over his glove, that hinted to manager Don Mattingly what Miami’s ace had in store on Wednesday night at loanDepot park.

Alcantara brought the heat in what he called his best performance yet, striking out a career-high 14 batters across nine innings of one-run ball. The Marlins went on to walk off against the Mets, 2-1, in the 10th on rookie Bryan De La Cruz’s RBI single to straightaway center field.

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“That was special tonight,” Mattingly said of Alcantara. “That stuff is filthy, and he's out there in the ninth with 110, 112 [pitches] throwing 100 [mph]. That's about as good as it gets right there. That's just special. Sandy started off as a guy that wasn't getting a lot of punchouts. [It’s the] same stuff, but now [he’s] learning the sequences and where to go with guys, just continuing to work to get better.”

Alcantara, who turned 26 on Tuesday, tallied double-digit strikeouts for the third time in his past four starts. He also notched seven K's of at least 99 mph, matching Washington's Stephen Strasburg (June 8, 2010) for the most since the pitch-tracking era began in '08, per Statcast.

Alcantara's 100.3 mph four-seam fastball to fan James McCann in the fifth matched the fourth-fastest pitch he has recorded a strikeout on, and he lit up the radar gun with a game-high 101.5 mph offering against pinch-hitter Dominic Smith in the eighth.

The last Marlins pitcher with 14 or more strikeouts in a game was Dan Straily (14 on April 22, 2017, at San Diego), and the last with at least 14 at home was José Fernández (14 on Sept. 9, 2016, vs. the Dodgers). Mattingly compared Alcantara’s dominance on the mound to Fernández’s final start on Sept. 20, 2016.

“It's fun,” Miami catcher Alex Jackson said. “Everything he did was insane. He executed every single pitch. The confidence that he had on the mound was tremendous, and that allows us to just work together and do our thing.”

Wednesday marked Alcantara’s sixth start of at least eight innings this season, one shy of Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright for the most in MLB. Mattingly sent Alcantara out to begin the ninth at 99 pitches, and he permitted a leadoff two-strike single to Jonathan Villar.

Francisco Lindor popped out and Pete Alonso struck out before Michael Conforto, whose game-tying homer in the seventh came on a 92.7 mph changeup, fanned for the third time on a 93.5 mph slider, Alcantara's 114th and final pitch.

As Alcantara walked back to the dugout, his teammates were there to greet him, though they couldn’t capitalize on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the bottom of the ninth to make him the winning pitcher.

“When I saw [Conforto] come into the box, I said, ‘This is the guy,’ because he hit a home run against me tonight,” Alcantara said. “I was really focused on him and tried to get a strikeout, and I did.”

Alcantara now has three career starts of at least nine innings. The other two were complete games during his All-Star campaign in 2019, one of which came against the Mets on May 19 that year.

Over his past six starts, Alcantara has a 1.83 ERA with 57 strikeouts and seven walks. This stretch comes after he allowed a career-high 10 runs against the Rockies at Coors Field on Aug. 6.

"He was throwing strikes with all his pitches,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “He had a really good four-seam fastball later in the game. Not only the sinker/changeup/slider mix that he can have, but the four-seam at the top of the zone was tough for batters. He got a bunch of swings and misses. That’s why he was able to cruise. He was a sinkerballer earlier, and then he was a four-seam guy later. He got a bunch of strikeouts with that pitch.

"He’s a guy that has special stuff, one of the best pitchers in the game, I think. It was one of those nights where he was really, really tough."