PITTSBURGH — It wasn’t easy, but the Marlins squeaked out a 6-5 win in 10 innings over the Pirates on Saturday at PNC Park for their first series win of the second half.
Bunts, debuts, homers, errors — the game had its share of all of them. But tucked inside it were a few notable performances. Here are three takeaways from a breath of relief for Miami.
Alcantara’s average is better than average
Sandy Alcantara’s start featured more struggles than he’s seen in his past couple of months, but his standards have been above and beyond the vast majority of Major League pitchers this season.
The staff ace went six innings, ending a streak of 13 starts of seven innings or more. Hurting his ability to go deeper were three walks, the most he’d issued since June 13, and he also hit a batter for the first time since May 28.
But a Sandy Alcantara without his Cy Young Award-level polish is still a very effective starter. He struck out 10 batters while allowing only two hits, one of which was a homer by Oneil Cruz in a seven-pitch at-bat.
“I just want to be able to be [pitching] every fifth day, just competing for my team, fighting for my team,” Alcantara said. “It doesn’t matter — strikeout, walk, any kind of situation — I just want to be able to go outside and fight for my team.”
The Marlins’ defense picked him up, too. With the lead on the line with two outs and a runner on third in the sixth, Alcantara got a boost from first baseman Jesús Aguilar, who made a rolling snag and throw to end the threat for the righty’s final out of the game.
“It was a big play for us in that spot,” manager Don Mattingly said. “For him to throw from his back and Sandy to be there to get us out of that spot with the lead was important.”
Bleday’s big day
JJ Bleday, who walked in his first Major League plate appearance Saturday, seemed to have grounded out in his first at-bat as a starter.
The center fielder hit a grounder to Cruz, who has broken the Statcast record for the fastest-thrown infield assist in his rookie season. But with the Pirates shortstop ranging to his right, putting him farther from first, Bleday turned on the jets to hit a 29 ft/sec sprint speed and record his first MLB hit.
“I saw where it was and realized I had a chance to beat that out,” Bleday said. “And I was just going to take advantage of it and run as hard as I could.”
In front of a crowd of what Bleday said was about 60 family members and friends from his hometown…
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