MIAMI — Sandy Alcantara threw seven innings of one-run ball against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Friday, extending a dominant stretch that has placed the Miami Marlins right-hander squarely in the National League Cy Young Award conversation despite a 1-0 loss.
The 30-year-old Dominican Republic native has delivered 19 quality starts in 26 outings this season, compiling a 3.43 ERA across a league-leading 170 2/3 innings with 130 strikeouts. His scoreless streak reached 25 innings before an unearned run in the sixth, when left fielder Heriberto Hernández misplayed a line drive off the bat of Eugenio Suárez.
“I don’t care about a strikeout,” Alcantara said. “I know as soon as I got to the big leagues that I don’t get that many strikeouts. I just need to worry about pitching and going deep in the game and always give a chance for my team to win the game.”
Alcantara’s approach has leaned on contact suppression rather than raw punchouts. Only five of the 22 balls the Reds put in play against him Friday registered as hard-hit. His two-seamer drew chases on more than 60 percent of pitches out of the zone, and opponents went just 2-for-17 against it. The pitch ranks 49th out of 177 pitchers with at least 50 plate appearances in weighted on-base average allowed at .294.
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough called Alcantara’s recent run historic in its consistency. “He’s a fierce competitor,” McCullough said. “Now we’re seeing the level of execution, the roll he’s been on, how he’s able to move the fastball to both sides of the plate, the type of action he gets on the changeup, and then now with the confidence he has in there to throw the multiple breaking balls, use the cutter to both sides. This guy knows how to win.”
The season represents a remarkable bounceback for Alcantara, who missed all of 2024 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and posted a 5.36 ERA in 2025. He previously had a 20-inning scoreless streak across his first three starts this year, making him the only pitcher in 2026 with multiple scoreless streaks of at least 20 innings — a feat last accomplished by Nathan Eovaldi in 2023 and by Alcantara himself during his 2022 Cy Young campaign.
Alcantara remains behind frontrunners Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Sánchez and Chris Sale, who carry lower ERAs and higher strikeout totals, but he is one of 11 NL pitchers who have accumulated at least 3 fWAR. “Some of the other guys are having terrific years,” McCullough said. “Sandy’s been phenomenal. He should be in the race when you look at it. Wins still matter because you’ve got to be out there a lot of times for the game to be decided, and, certainly, the amount of innings he’s able to pile up, how he’s suppressed runs this year, he’s having a really phenomenal season. He’s just built for this.”
Alcantara is on pace to surpass 200 innings for the third time in his career by mid-September, a workload that has been critical for managing Miami’s bullpen as the Marlins chase a playoff berth.