The year is 2025, but Friday’s game unfolded like a lot of Sandy Alcantara‘s starts from the 2022 season. Alcantara tossed a gem against the Boston Red Sox while his own team’s offense gave him little to no run support in a losing effort. With the score tied entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough put the game in the left hand of rookie Josh Simpson, who loaded the bases without recording an out. The Red Sox walked off to win by a final score of 2-1.
Alcantara has struggled post-trade deadline, allowing six runs against the Houston Astros and five runs in his most recent start against the Atlanta Braves. Pitching at Fenway Park against the Red Sox was an even tougher test, yet he went six innings of one-run ball, allowing two hits, one walk and struck out seven—his highest strikeout total since May 11.
What made this a vintage Sandy start? First off, the efficiency, averaging 14 pitches per inning and posting a 53.8% ground ball rate. Alcantara pounded the strike zone, throwing 65 of his 86 pitches for strikes, including an 81% first-pitch strike rate.
“This was his best start of the season,” said Clayton McCullough. “I think from a execution standpoint, the quality of stuff that he threw, I thought this was definitely his best. Terrific changeup, his slider was very good and saw the fastball…I felt that was the time there—with a fully rested ‘pen—to acknowledge him for how well he did and he fought. He of course wants to go back out there, but felt like that was an incredible outing by him and another one we can build on.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Alcantara surrendered his first baserunner of the ballgame when Trevor Story singled. In the sixth inning, the Red Sox tied the game at one apiece thanks to an Alex Bregman RBI double.
From there, it would be quiet until the bottom of the ninth inning. Both Ronny Henriquez and Josh Simpson were warming up in the Marlins bullpen. Henriquez, Miami’s most valuable reliever this season, was getting ready in case the Fish took the lead to create a save situation, said McCullough afterward. He had only thrown 11 pitches during the past week.
When the Marlins went down quietly in the top of the ninth, Simpson was thrown into the fire. He walked both Roman Anthony and Alex Bregman, then hit Jarren Duran. As soon as he faced the minimum three batters, Simpson was taken out in place of Calvin Faucher, but there was little Faucher could do when inheriting the bases loaded with no outs. On the second pitch of the at-bat, Story singled to right field to end it.
“Josh is going to be a key piece for us, and his ability to get out left is going to be a big part of that,” McCullough explained. “Throwing strikes, especially late in games coming out of the ‘pen is a critical thing, which Josh knows and he’s aware of that. Tonight, he just didn’t have much feel for his pitches and had trouble finding the strike zone. I think we’ll look back on this one and it’ll be a good moment for Josh. While it stings for him right now and for us, this is part of it and still have a lot of confidence that Josh is going to be someone that will take down high-leverage innings versus left for us.”
Simpson entered the game having held lefty opponents to a .194 batting average since his call-up, but a less-impressive .737 OPS. Also, he had given up seven earned runs over his previous 4 ⅔ innings pitched.
This was the fifth time this season that the Marlins have suffered a walk-off loss. Most recently, it happened against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 27. That game was also decided with an unestablished rookie on the mound (Cade Gibson).
The Marlins’ lone run of the ballgame came in the top of the third inning thanks to a Kyle Stowers RBI double off the Green Monster, driving in Xavier Edwards. Despite nine hits, they only had one run to show for it and went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
With the loss, the Marlins fall to 2-7 on this road trip and 58-64 on the season. For those keeping a close eye out on the National League postseason race, both the Reds and Mets lost, keeping the Marlins six games out of the final wild-card spot. The Fish will try to bounce back on Saturday as Cal Quantrill will toe the rubber against Brayan Bello. First pitch is at 4:10 pm.