{"id":668318,"date":"2026-04-07T12:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668318\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:41:15","slug":"sal-stewart-reds-take-aim-at-marlins-ace-sandy-alcantara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668318\/","title":{"rendered":"Sal Stewart, Reds take aim at Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/28671664.jpg\"  alt=\"MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Miami Marlins\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/>Apr 6, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (27) hits an RBI single against the Miami Marlins during the fourth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images   <\/p>\n<p>First baseman Sal Stewart, a Miami native, is hoping for more good vibes on Tuesday when his Cincinnati Reds play the host Marlins.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart hit the go-ahead RBI single on Monday as the Reds won 2-0 in the opener of a four-game series.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m super happy to be home (in Miami),&#8221; said Stewart, 22. &#8220;I love seeing my family and friends. Miami is where I grew up. It&#8217;s in my blood, and everyone knows how much Miami means to me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Stewart and his teammates will be backing up Andrew Abbott, the fourth straight left-hander to start against the Marlins.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott (0-1, 3.09 ERA) will go up against Miami&#8217;s ace, right-hander Sandy Alcantara (2-0, 0.00).<\/p>\n<p>Abbott became a first-time All-Star last year at age 26, going 8-1 with a 2.07 ERA in the first half of the season. However, in the second half of the season, he wasn&#8217;t as sharp (2-6, 3.84 ERA).<\/p>\n<p>This year has seen him produce one stellar start and one rough outing. He fired six shutout innings in a no-decision against the Boston Red Sox on Opening Day, then yielded four runs on five hits in 5 2\/3 innings versus the Pittsburgh Pirates in a loss on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel like I&#8217;m in a good spot,&#8221; Abbott said after the defeat, according to MLB.com. &#8220;Obviously, there are improvements to make, there&#8217;s things to kind of go back over, rewatch, relearn. But for the most part, I&#8217;m doing what I meant to do in the spring.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>In his lone start against the Marlins last year, Abbott tossed 7 2\/3 innings of one-run ball. However, the previous season he was lit up twice by Miami, allowing 11 runs on 13 hits in 8 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p>Alcantara had a season that was essentially the opposite of Abbott&#8217;s last year. The former National League Cy Young Award winner, who missed the entire 2024 season following elbow surgery, struggled in the first half of 2025, going 4-9 with a 7.22 ERA. He got his groove back in the second half of last season, when he went 7-3 with a 3.33 ERA.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Alcantara permitted just one run, which was unearned in seven innings on Opening Day, then fired a three-hit shutout against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. Through 16 innings, he has permitted seven hits and two walked while striking out 12.<\/p>\n<p>In nine appearances (seven starts) against the Reds, Alcantara is 2-5 with a 3.99 ERA. For his career, Alcantara has a 3.15 ERA at home as opposed to a 4.08 ERA on the road.<\/p>\n<p>On offense, the Marlins are looking for more production from Jakob Marsee, who is batting just .109 with a .389 OPS. As a rookie last year, the center fielder was much better, hitting .292 with an .842 OPS.<\/p>\n<p>Marlins manager Clayton McCullough isn&#8217;t panicking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With Marsee, things will start falling his way in time,&#8221; McCullough said. &#8220;Those line drives will fall, and he will get on a run.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For the Reds, Stewart is hitting .353 with a 1.094 OPS. Many other Cincinnati batters are slumping, but the team is 7-3 due to outstanding pitching.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t done anything yet,&#8221; Stewart said. &#8220;We just have to stay focused and help the team win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 6, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (27) hits an RBI single against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-668318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-cincinnatireds","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116363480290661365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}