{"id":670102,"date":"2026-04-08T11:16:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670102\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:16:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:16:24","slug":"why-sandy-alcantara-was-taken-out-in-midst-of-shutout-as-marlins-suffer-painful-loss-marlins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670102\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sandy Alcantara was taken out in midst of shutout as Marlins suffer painful loss – Marlins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMIAMI, FL \u2014 Sandy Alcantara<\/a> took the mound in the top of the ninth inning with a 2\u20130 lead, aiming to become the fourth pitcher in Marlins franchise history to record back-to-back complete-game shutouts. After surrendering a double and a walk, manager Clayton McCullough<\/a> made his most controversial move of the young season, removing his ace in favor of Anthony Bender<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tEverything unraveled for Miami from there, as both inherited runners scored to tie the game at two. In extra innings, the Reds added four more runs to secure a 6\u20133 victory.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u201c(Anthony) Bender was the best person to win the game for us,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cSandy had certainly gone above and beyond and threw great, but the decision didn\u2019t work out. At that time, I thought the best way to win the game was going with Anthony.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAlcantara, who has thrown 13 complete games\u2014five of them shutouts\u2014was coming off a complete-game shutout in his previous start. McCullough approached the mound in the ninth already set on making the change, with no discussion planned. After the game, Alcantara said he had not spoken with his manager.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u201cI deserved to be asked how I felt before I was taken out of the game,\u201d Alcantara said. \u201cI saw him coming out, and even before he crossed the line, he pointed to the bullpen. Negative thoughts crossed my mind, but those are things I can\u2019t control. Tomorrow I\u2019ll be here preparing for my next start and hoping things go differently.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThrough three starts, Alcantara has pitched into at least the seventh inning each time, but for him, it\u2019s not about innings\u2014it\u2019s about pitch count.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u201cThey are just innings, not pitches,\u201d Alcantara said in Spanish.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tHe was at 95 pitches and set to face Sal Stewart<\/a> for the fourth time, having struck him out in his previous at-bat. With runners on first and second and one out\u2014and a 47.6% ground-ball rate\u2014Alcantara had a strong chance to induce a game-ending double play. Still, McCullough opted not to let him face Stewart again.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u201cThere are a lot of decisions over the course of a game and a season that weigh on you,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cFor this one not to go our way certainly doesn\u2019t feel great. Answering for it is part of the job, and I don\u2019t feel good about how it finished. Losing the game is what stings the most.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAs McCullough walked to the mound, fans began to boo, voicing their frustration with the decision to pull the Marlins\u2019 ace. He acknowledged the reaction afterward.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u201cWe have passionate fans, and they care. They\u2019re very invested in us winning games,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cThey\u2019re certainly within their right to be displeased when things don\u2019t go our way.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall, Alcantara finished the night going 8 \u2153 innings pitched, allowing two runs on three hits, two walks and struck out six. His fastball topped out at 99.5 mph, which he hit in the top of the first inning.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe changeup was once again his most dominant pitch, generating six whiffs and striking out four with it. His four-seam fastball, which he threw 17.1% of the time in 2025, was his most used pitch on Tuesday, and has been his second-most-used pitch overall. He struck out two with the four-seam and landed it nine out of ten times for a first pitch strike.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“I’ve been doing a great job,” Alcantara said. “Doing my work in the ‘pen, trying to locate my four-seam, and today was great. Threw a lot of four-seam today for strikes from both sides.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause of McCullough’s move, Dontrelle Willis remains the only Marlins pitcher to throw nine-inning shutouts in consecutive starts, which he did on April 8 and April 13, 2005.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the offensive side, the Marlins did provide early run support for Alcantara, as both Otto Lopez<\/a> and Heriberto Hernandez<\/a> had RBI groundouts, taking a 2-0 lead. The next time Miami scored a run came in the bottom of the tenth inning, when Graham Pauley<\/a> grounded into a fielders choice, scoring Jakob Marsee<\/a>, the runner at third. Miami’s offense was 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, unable to provide a bigger cushion for their ace.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMarsee, who had gotten off to a slow start in 2026, finished with his first multi-hit performance of the season, highlighted by a 109.0 mph base hit, his hardest hit ball of the season. On the base paths, he also had four stolen bases, which tied a franchise record.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Marlins dropped to 6-5 on the season, now searching for a series split against the Reds. Eury P\u00e9rez<\/a>, who struggled in his last start against the New York Yankees, will take the mound for Miami on Wednesday at 6:40 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI, FL \u2014 Sandy Alcantara took the mound in the top of the ninth inning with a 2\u20130…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,6381,1816,778,58,4171,4,3480],"class_list":{"0":"post-670102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-clayton-mccullough","10":"tag-marlins","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-marlins","13":"tag-miamimarlins","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-sandy-alcantara"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116368807468189601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670102","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=670102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}