MIAMI -- A wave of red, white and blue banderas. The música of a boisterous pachanga band. All season long, the Marlins have held heritage celebrations at loanDepot park to pay tribute to South Florida's diversity.

It was Platano Power's turn Saturday night as Sandy Alcantara struck out a career-high 12 batters and Jesús Sánchez went deep, honoring their native Dominican Republic in a 6-1 win over the Reds. Bryan De La Cruz, who finished 2-for-4, and pitching prospect Edward Cabrera round out the D.R. contingent for Miami.

“I think this is what our crowd should feel like, honestly, and I think it should feel like this with the [noise maker],” manager Don Mattingly said. “We should be handing those out when they walk in the door. I'm serious. That's a fun atmosphere. It feels like that's our environment. That was great tonight. So maybe we have to make it a night every night. That was fun to hear. It felt like winter ball a little bit. That was a great crowd.”

Alcantara, who hails from Azua in the southern region of the Dominican Republic, said it meant a lot to take the mound representing his country.

Whether by coincidence or not, Alcantara composed one of his finer outings of the season. He allowed just one run over seven innings and recorded seven of his 12 strikeouts via the slider, which is considered his third pitch. It didn’t matter that Miami’s ace was facing Cincinnati for a second straight start.

“Immediately I came from the bullpen [and] I know when my slider is going to be nasty, because like I said, I'm working so hard on my slider,” Alcantara said. “I see the results when I'm warming up in the bullpen and when I throw it in the first inning in the game.”

The 25-year-old continues to dominate on the mound. Since surrendering a career-high 10 runs at Coors Field on Aug. 6, Alcantara has given up four runs across 29 innings (1.24 ERA). During that span, he has gone at least seven frames in all four starts. Alcantara already has set a career high for strikeouts in a season (158), besting his total (151) from his 2019 All-Star campaign.

"He’s a tough guy to really string things together on,” Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “He’s a special arm, a special talent. You could probably count on one, maybe two hands, guys that are going to be able to do damage on some of the things that he was throwing tonight."

The 23-year-old Sánchez, a native of the eastern city of Higüey in the Dominican Republic, deposited a 92.7 mph four-seamer from Vladimir Gutierrez deep to center for his fifth homer of the season.

His three-run shot capped a five-run first inning for the Marlins -- their best opening frame since scoring five against the Braves on Sept. 30, 2017. The energy in the ballpark was palpable on his trip around the bases and once he returned to the dugout.

“It was amazing just to have everybody around making the noise,” Sánchez said via an interpreter. “The adrenaline was actually flowing from the amount of fans around, the Dominican fans. It was actually pretty amazing.”

Sánchez, who recently graduated from prospect status, has been starting on a daily basis in right field. He is trying to find his groove since returning from the injured list on Aug. 16. Entering Saturday, he had gone 6-for-36 (.167) with three doubles and one homer in 11 games.

Fellow rookie outfielder De La Cruz, a 24-year-old from Santo Domingo Este, collected his 10th multi-hit performance in 26 games to open his big league career. He came over from the Astros in the Yimi García trade. The Marlins are eager to see what Sánchez and De La Cruz can show as the season draws to a close. Ideally, they will cement their inclusion in to the club’s plans for 2022 and beyond.

Their performance and this stretch of the rebuild are crucial to the Marlins recapturing the festive atmosphere of the 2017 World Baseball Classic on a more consistent basis. Sánchez inferred that it is up to the players with performances like the one on Saturday night.

“Just do your job,” Sánchez remarked in Spanish.