Sandy

Alcantara

Alcantara managed to keep the ball in the yard but still gave up eight hits on nine hard-hit balls. He finished with five strikeouts and handed out three free passes. He’s allowed three earned runs or fewer in six of his eight starts this season. He’ll carry a pedestrian 4.01 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 36/18 K/BB ratio across 51 2/3 innings into a home outing against the Nationals on Sunday to close out a two-start week.

One of the runs scored because Otto Lopez lost Alex Call’s infield popup in the sun. It’s Alcantara’s fifth quality start in seven tries, though he has only a 2-2 record to show for his 3.04 ERA. He’ll likely take on the Orioles next week.

Alcantara gave up nine hits but only three hard-hit balls, which is kind of nuts. Really, though, this was the offense the Giants envisioned this season; they did a wonderful job of hitting flare singles and a couple of doubles in front of outfielders. If only their pitchers hadn’t given up nine runs, Buster Posey and Tony Vitello would be having quite the celebration. Alcantara, though, already had eight runs of support before giving up three runs in the fifth. He’ll take a 3.05 ERA into a tough start Wednesday against the Dodgers. Mixed leaguers might have better options next week.

Alcantara worked around traffic throughout this one, stranding one runner in the first inning, two in the second, and escaping a bases-loaded jam in the third with a ground-ball double play. The Brewers would finally bring one in to score in the fourth on a walk and a base hit. Brice Turang added two more with a home run in the fifth. Alcantara’s day would be done after five innings. It was the first time this season he didn’t go six frames. He also tied a career high with six walks and recorded just one strikeout. The 30-year-old right-hander will look to get right after a back-to-back tough starts when he takes a 3.06 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and a 23/12 K/BB ratio over 35 1/3 innings into a start against the Giants in San Francisco on Friday.

It was a little too early to start engraving the Cy Young Award. Still, it’s impressive that Alcantara can give up seven runs on Apr. 12 and sport a 2.67 ERA. Alcantara surrendered 12 of the game’s 13 hardest-hit balls, with only Otto Lopez’s 107-mph groundout against Tarik Skubal breaking up the list. He’ll bounce back from this, but it does need to be remembered that his brilliant beginning to the season was fueled by starts against the Rockies and White Sox. He’ll face the Brewers next weekend.

The box score doesn’t begin to tell the story, as once again, a vintage Alcantara outing. The 30-year-old wasn’t able to complete his second-consecutive shutout as he gave up a double and walk in the ninth, and two runs scored on a sac fly and a wild pitch in that frame after he exited. He struck out six, walked two, and wasn’t hit hard for the overwhelming majority of the game against a solid Cincinnati lineup. Alcantara will look to keep up this good run — good run seems like such an understatement — against the Tigers on Sunday. Fantasy managers who took a chance on Alcantara have to be thrilled.

Alcantara needed just 93 pitches to dispose of the White Sox. 69 of those were strikes, and he went without walking a batter, though he did hit Miguel Vargas. All three hits off him were singles, and the first was actually a bunt with two outs and none on in the second. Alcantara is now tied with Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Shelby Miller and Max Scherzer for second on the active list for shutouts, four behind Justin Verlander. He’s alone in third with 13 complete games, trailing Verlander at 26 and Chris Sale at 16. Give Alcantara a ton of credit for just how efficient he was, but the results probably wouldn’t have been quite the same against a better offense. His stock is up a little with two scoreless victories to begin the year, but he always seemed likely to get off to a good start with the Rockies and White Sox on the schedule. He’ll face the Reds next week.

Alcantara was efficient early, needing just 24 pitches to get through the first three innings while striking out two. The right-hander was on target all night and got some help from his defense when Austin Slater gunned down Jake McCarthy at home on a throw from right field to temporarily keep the Rockies off the board in the fourth inning. However, an error at third base with two outs extended the inning, while an infield single by Jordan Beck drove in the Rockies’ first run of the night to cut the Marlins’ lead to 2-1. Alcantara’s day came to an end after he struck out Brenton Doyle to end the seventh inning. He threw only 73 pitches on the day, with 49 of those going for strikes. Things couldn’t have gone much better for Alcantara, who looked every bit the ace we saw in 2022. He’ll look to build on this start on Wednesday when the Marlins play host to the White Sox.

All three runs scored in the fourth, an inning in which Alcantara gave up four of the five hits he allowed and was pulled with two outs. He returned for the fifth and worked a scoreless inning then in spite of a leadoff walk. Alcantara topped out at 98.4 mph today and threw 56 of his 86 pitches for strikes. He’ll get to begin the season Friday with essentially another spring start at home against the Rockies.

Alcantara gave up three hits and only issued one walk, building up his pitch count to 70 (46 strikes) in the process. The 30-year-old ace would’ve started the World Baseball Classic final had the Dominican Republic rallied to beat Team USA over the weekend. He’ll presumably get the ball on Opening Day for the Marlins next week.