Player of the gameHeriberto HernándezMIA2/4 1hr 2rbi
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara made the long walk from the dugout to the bullpen to a chorus of cheers past the midway point of Sunday afternoon’s 10-3 victory over the Cubs at loanDepot park. Alcantara, who leads the Majors in starts, innings and quality starts, was gearing up for a possible save situation on his in-between starts bullpen day. The only times Alcantara had served as a reliever were in September 2017 as a Cardinal during his first big league stint. Talk about coming out of left field, where the bullpen is fittingly located, huh? It was an idea manager Clayton McCullough proposed to Alcantara pregame, and one that the 2022 National League Cy Young winner didn’t hesitate in agreeing to. With the Marlins being aggressive pulling starters, especially of late, and playing catch-up in the NL Wild Card standings, the organization is going with an all-hands-on-deck approach to defying the odds. Right-hander Janson Junk provided a scoreless eighth inning to pick up the hold in a 4-0 victory over the Red Sox on Aug. 26 with a heavily depleted bullpen. Depending on whether the Marlins stick in the playoff picture and how guys are feeling, this could come up again. “He wants to win. He wants to win here,” McCullough said of Alcantara. “I just think that speaks to our group. We still have an uphill battle ahead of us, but everyone in there believes that we can go get this done, and that to get that done is maybe going to require all of us to be as open-minded, as flexible, and trying to make that a reality.” Miami didn’t need to use Alcantara, who will start Tuesday’s game against the Mets, because six different Marlins drove in at least one run. Heriberto Hernández and Javier Sanoja went deep as Miami (72-72) returned to .500 with 18 games remaining but stayed four games behind Arizona (76-68) for the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
