Sandy Alcantara deserved so much better than the Marlins' offense against the Cardinals
In case you thought Jacob deGrom was the only pitcher in the National League East who’s unreal performances are spoiled by an offense that can hardly muster a run, allow us to venture down to South Florida, where the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara is owed a few apologies in the locker room today.
Alcantara faced his former St. Louis Cardinals team for the fourth time in his career on Wednesday night and absolutely dominated their lineup yet again. Despite throwing 27 pitches in the first inning, Alcantara finished with eight scoreless frames, six strikeouts, one walk and four hits allowed. Only one of those hits left the infield.
It was a masterclass. Except he was forced to hand the ball over to Anthony Bender in the ninth inning and promptly watched the reliever allow a two-run homer to Nolan Arenado to hand the Marlins a 2-0 loss. And somehow that’s not even the worst part for Alcantara.
No, the worst part is that this exact same thing just keeps happening against the Cardinals.
That is just astonishingly cruel and in no way does Alcantara deserve to have losses attached to his name after those outings.
In 27.1 innings, the Cardinals have only come up with 18 hits and three earned runs against 29 strikeouts when facing Alcantara. The Marlins lost those games by a scores of 4-2, 1-0, 4-1 and 2-0.
Granted, the Marlins are not a great team year in and year out. But they are averaging 3.64 runs per game in 2022—in other words, more than the Cardinals scored Wednesday. And when you’ve got a pitcher who clearly owns a specific opponent, you’ve got to do more to get on the scoreboard. Even Miami manager Don Mattingly agrees.
“It’s a shame,” Mattingly said. “You hate to waste one like that.”
And yet it just keeps happening. Welcome to the deGrom Club, Sandy. We’re so sorry you’re here.