The Miami Marlins played quite the trap card during Wednesday’s game.
Miami played Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz. Going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Marlins were clinging to a 4-3 lead and needed to call on a reliever to secure the save.
As a result, Miami decided to turn to [checks notes] their ace starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara, summoning him from the bullpen to get the final three outs. Even wilder is the fact that Alcantara already pitched two days prior, throwing 101 pitches during an eventual loss to the Dbacks on Monday.
Alcantara rose to the occasion on Wednesday though, throwing 13 pitches and allowing one hit before successfully closing out the Dbacks for the 4-3 win. That marked Alcantara’s very first career save in what was his first relief appearance ever since his rookie season back in 2017.
Sandy Alcantara recorded his first career save in his first relief appearance since he was a rookie with the Cardinals in 2017 pic.twitter.com/7uOhMcuCJA
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 17, 2026
There is certainly a lot to unpack here with Alcantara, who has made 32 starts this season and already leads Major League Baseball with 206 total innings pitched. The Marlins are also on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention at 76-77 (7.5 games back of a Wild Card spot with nine games to play), so it is a little hard to follow the thinking here for Miami.
We do know though that the ex-Cy Young winner Alcantara is a serious competitor and was not even pleased after he threw a complete-game shutout earlier this season. With Miami effectively out of the running for a postseason spot, perhaps they felt comfortable experimenting on Wednesday night during a game against an actual playoff hopeful in the Dbacks (who themselves fell to 3.5 games back of a Wild Card spot with the loss).
