MIAMI _ Sandy Alcantara, future ace?
It's one of the biggest questions of the seasons for the Miami Marlins, as they try to build a staff of young arms that will carry them into a brighter future.
But why wait for the future?
Alcantara's present is darn impressive.
In his 2019 debut _ a 3-0 Marlins shutout of the Rockies on Sunday _ the 23-year-old, hard-throwing righty was as good as it gets.
Alcantara sliced through a potent Rockies lineup over eight scoreless, quick innings, but needed Sergio Romo cleaned up Wei-Yin Chen's mess in the ninth before he could exhale.
Romo did, retiring all three Colorado batters he faced for his first save as a Marlin to close out a tidy 2 hour, 32 minute affair.
"The MVP over there today is Sandy Alcantara," Romo said at his locker afterward. "Pretty good job by him today."
Romo was being intentionally understated. Alacantara was lights out.
He scattered four hits over a career-high eight innings and only was in one real pickle the entire day.
That came in the third inning, when the Rockies had Tony Wolters on third with one out.
But Alcantara first got Charlie Blackmon to pop out, and then escaped the inning thanks to a bit of fortune.
David Dahl smashed a screaming one-hopper down the first baseline. Nine times out of 10, a run would have scored.
But Neil Walker got leather on the ball, which popped straight up.
"I didn't know where it went," Dahl said. "I heard Sandy running to first saying 'Up!' I looked up and somehow it ended up in my hands. It ended up being a big run."
Sort of.
Alcantara, and the Marlins in-progress bullpen, only needed one to win.
And if it were a bit later in the season, Don Mattingly probably would have sent him out for the ninth. Twelve of Alcantara's 24 outs came on ground balls, and many of those were early in the count. He didn't walk a batter all afternoon, showing great command.
"All the pitches were working," Alcantara, speaking Spanish, said through a translator. "I was very aggressive. I was throwing pitches right where I wanted."
Added Walker: "He was really impressive. He was in control from Pitch 1 to his last pitch. Filling up the strike zone, obviously. Finishing guys off with a slider and his fastball. It was really impressive to see how him and (catcher Jorge Alfaro) were working today. Really good start to the season."
And it's now two encouraging outings from the Marlins' top four starters. Trevor Richards allowed a lone run in six innings Saturday.
"He was pretty much dominant all day," Mattingly said. "He was aggressive. He was pounding the strike zone. He was using his change-up, he was using his breaking ball. Two seam and the four.
"Sandy just set the tone. Throwing zeroes all day."
