Clean-shaven Sandy finds form in Marlins comeback

CHICAGO — Earlier this week the day after one more befuddling begin to his season, Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara confirmed up with a noticeably trimmed beard.

“Just trying to do something different,” Alcantara mentioned on Saturday. “I did it last year — I shaved it down last year. So this year, I’m just trying to do something different. Maybe I’m going to have luck today, and you guys see what I did.”

Alcantara delivered seven robust innings, surrendering simply an ambushed first-pitch homer to Andrew Vaughn within the fourth. Thanks to an unbelievable five-run ninth-inning rally by the Marlins, Alcantara went from a tough-luck loser to incomes the no-decision in a 5-1 victory over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner allowed simply three hits, together with the homer, with two walks and 4 strikeouts. He was a floor ball machine, inducing a season-high 12. Entering Saturday, his ground-ball fee in 2023 (45.5%) was effectively under his ‘22 mark (53.4%).

Most importantly, Alcantara prevented his season-long development of falling sufferer to an enormous inning. In his earlier begin on Sunday in opposition to the A’s, the one which led to shaving his beard, Alcantara was good throughout seven frames — exterior of a five-run third.

“He gave up a solo home run,” supervisor Skip Schumaker mentioned. “I can deal with the solo home run all day long. Got a lot of ground balls today. The defense played excellent for seven innings of his outing. A lot of two-seamers. I thought his changeup was really good today. Slider had some more movement and depth. Besides maybe a couple walks that he wants to have back, he pitched really, really well and kind of vintage Sandy.”

Miami’s protection confirmed up from the get-go for Alcantara, as Joey Wendle dove to his proper deep into quick and fired to first from one knee to file the ultimate out of the primary with a runner on base. Playing middle area for the primary time this season, Jesús Sánchez recovered after a foul learn to make a diving catch for the primary out of the fourth that adopted Vaughn’s homer.

When Alcantara walked Andrew Benintendi to open the sixth, Jacob Stallings caught him stealing. Stallings entered Saturday throwing out simply 10% of would-be basestealers, a season-long difficulty for Miami’s backstops due to the pitching employees’s incapacity to carry runners. Alcantara, for instance, has given up 11 steals — tied for eighth most within the Majors. And third baseman Jean Segura confirmed vary to his left and executed a spin throw for the second out of the seventh.

“You have to be prepared with Sandy,” mentioned Segura, whose two-run double within the ninth added insurance coverage. “Sandy is one of those guys that attacks the zone. With his sinker, a lot of people are going to hit a lot of ground balls. As an infielder, when you’ve got your ace on the mound, you have to be ready on every pitch.”

Prior to the ninth-inning rally, the Marlins had stranded 11 batters and had gone 0-for-11 with runners in scoring place. They appeared destined to attain only one mixed run within the first two video games of their three-city highway journey.

Instead, Garrett Cooper led off with a pinch-hit single in opposition to righty Joe Kelly hours after an MRI and X-rays got here again unfavourable on his left elbow. Luis Arraez adopted along with his second hit of the sport to bump his common to .402, and Jorge Soler walked to load the bases.

Bryan De La Cruz then reached on a fielding error by shortstop Tim Anderson, scoring the tying run and retaining the bases loaded. Sánchez labored a nine-pitch plate look that culminated in an RBI stroll. That pair entered the body hitless in seven at-bats with 4 strikeouts. Yuli Gurriel produced a run-scoring fielder’s selection earlier than Segura’s two-out, two-run knock.

“If you see the stats, this is pretty much one of the best outings from Sandy,” Sánchez mentioned through interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “And so that was top of our minds. We were thinking, ‘We’ve got to win this game. We’ve got to continue, we’ve got to battle in the game.’ But if you think about it, like at the end of the game, we noticed that it’s not about home runs or doubles, singles. You can also win games with a walk.”