MIAMI — There’s something reassuring about familiarity, and that describes Sandy Alcantara’s opening game Friday night for the Miami Marlins: clean, strong, economical and, most importantly, again showing a calm confidence he lacked too much last season.

“Great way to start,’’ he said of the 2-1 win against Colorado.

It was a made-for-baseball opener from the cool, night air to the decent crowd of 32,459 to the recipe that christened a new Marlins season.

One newcomer, right-fielder Owen Caissie, the former Chicago Cubs’ top prospect, doubled home the winning run in the second inning. Another newcomer, closer Pete Fairbanks, the Marlins’ $13 million free-agent splurge, finished the game in good fashion.

But the season-hoping news for the Marlins was how Alcantara looked again like the guy who could take the ball every fifth day and carry this team. He went seven innings and only faced three batters in six of them.

His change-up finished off three of his five strikeouts. He threw 98 mph from the first batter. He used six pitches …

“Seven,’’ he said, smiling over his newly added sweeper pitch this season.

All the lingering effects from his return last season from Tommy John surgery were gone. Those showed up in the numbers at last year’s start: a staggering 8.98 earned-run average in April and May.

“I wasn’t sure of myself,’’ he said.

A lot of intangibles aren’t worth the conversation they take up in sports. Leadership. Will. Focus. Mental toughness. A clutch gene.

Confidence is the intangible that matters most. That was clear Friday. Alcantara struck out the season’s lead-off hitter, Colorado’s Jake McCarthy, on three pitches.

His first inning was over in seven pitches. A double-play ground ball hastened his second inning. After the third inning, he’d thrown 23 pitches — and 19 strikes.

“Sandy was filling it up all night,’’ Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said.

His only trouble came in the fourth inning. Right-fielder Austin Slater threw out one would-be run at home plate. Colorado then scored its lone, unearned run before Alcantara pitched out of a bases-loaded situation.

“He’s been in so many of those he knows how to handle it,’’ McCullough said.

Back for this opener was the talent to anchor the Marlins rotation, the two-time All-Star and Cy Young winner. Back, too, will be questions of what the Marlins will do with him if he returns to form this season.

Is he available for trade in June or July? There’s a lot to unpack in that. Some of that involves the Marlins’ baseball-low payroll losing the highest-paid player at $17.3 million off it. How low could they go without being criticized by owners and players union alike?

The other point is how the Marlins could replace a player of Alcantara’s talent for that modest-by-baseball-standards salary. He doesn’t rank among the top-40-paid pitchers.

So, he’s a big talent, a big bargain and 30 years old. That’s a tough combination to trade if the Marlins want to compete coming up. Throw in the added fact he’s come out on the other side of the Tommy John surgery pitchers often must in today’s game (four of the Marlins top six starters had undergone it).

“I didn’t feel great until the second half of the year,’’ he said of last season. “There were a lot of good things that I did last year in the second half.”

He had a 3.73 ERA for August and September. That changed his mindset coming into this season.

“I felt ready — felt normal,’’ he said. “I wasn’t thinking about (the injury) like I was last year.

This Marlins will have to ride pitching, defense and one-run wins again. Their lineup isn’t going to carry them most nights.

“These are the type of games we’re going to be in a lot,’’ McCullough said.

It helps to start the season winning with a couple newcomers like Caissie and Fairbanks producing right away. It really helps to have Alcantara looking like the foundation to a pitching staff this team needs in a dominant outing. One down. A season to go.