respectively, miami marlins Ace Sandy Alcantara Inching Closer To His Cy Young Award Form
The right-hander will look to continue the process when he takes on the hosts on Wednesday afternoon st louis cardinals In the finale of the three match series. St. Louis won the first two games Monday 6-4 and Tuesday 5-2 in 10 innings
Last season, Alcantara finished 14–9 with a 2.28 ERA in 32 starts on his way to capturing the National League Cy Young Award. This season, he is 3-8 with a 4.64 ERA through 19 starts.
After posting 5.04, 4.85 and 4.59 ERAs in his first three months this year, Alcantara is at 3.57 ERA with 16 strikeouts and just three walks in three starts in July.
He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in three of his last four innings.
“I’m trying to think about what I was doing in my last few tours and trying to get better every day,” Alcantara said.
Most recently, he allowed three runs on eight hits over six innings, two of which were earned, during a 5-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. According to Statcast, his fastball velocity reached a season-high 100.6 mph and averaged 98.6 mph.
“Everything was there: command, velo, just a step,” Alcantara said. “I feel good coming out of the break. I feel bad because we didn’t win the game.”
marlins Manager Skip Shoemaker saw progress in that performance, despite single homers by Alcantara allowing Adam Frazier and Cedric Mullins.
Shoemaker said, “I think he’ll tell you that he made two big mistakes on the home run.” “Plus, his fastball velo was as good as it’s probably been all year. His changeup was good. Slider was good. Got a lot of ground balls.”
Alcantara did not suffer Cardinals, his former team, when the squads met earlier this month in Miami. He is 1-3 with a 1.24 ERA in five starts against St.Louis in his career.
he is catching Cardinals In the midst of a heat wave. St. Louis has won four games in a row and six of the last seven to finally escape the National League Central cellar
“The guys are right there mentally and they haven’t been rewarded with the same results that they’ve had in a lot of the past games.” Cardinals said manager Oliver Marmol. “But I really feel like our players are in pretty good shape mentally
“It’s just the attack, the pitching, the bullpen, the defense, it’s all coming together, and this is how it should look.”
Cardinals In a bullpen game the former starter, starting with right-hander Dakota Hudson, would shoot for a series sweep while countering Alcantara with a series of relievers.
Hudson (1-0, 1.80 ERA) has appeared in four games since his major league season debut on July 1. His most recent appearance came on Saturday, and was his longest appearance. In 3 1/3 innings, he allowed no runs and four hits with no walks and two strikeouts and earned the win over the Washington Nationals.
Hudson pitched 2 2/3 innings on July 5 at Miami. He gave up two runs on two hits and three walks with one strikeout and a solo home run to Jacob Stallings. Hudson has pitched in five games in his career. marlinstwo of them as a starter, and is 2-0 with a 3.12 ERA in 17 1/3 innings.
Cardinals Delayed the activation of outfielder Tyler O’Neal until Thursday to keep an additional pitcher on the roster. O’Neal has recovered from lower back pain that kept him out since early May
Miami first baseman Garrett Cooper is questionable for Wednesday’s game. He left Tuesday’s game after fouling a ball with his shin in the ninth inning.
marlins On Tuesday, pitcher Robert Garcia was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville, while pitcher Edward Cabrera was activated from the injured list. debuted against cabrera Cardinals and threw more than five innings of one-run ball
–Field Level Media