If the season ended today, Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara would be a prime candidate to win the National League Cy Young for the first time in his career.
He has thrown 130.1 innings (a number that leads the league, by the way) with an incredible 1.73 ERA.
That ERA is often associated with a dominant late-inning reliever who doesn’t have to face the same lineup two or three times.
Yet Alcantara is doing it as a starter, and not only that: he is the most durable pitcher in MLB.
“@sandyalcantar22 has been nearly unhittable these last 2 months,” MLB tweeted, with a chart showing his dominance.
.@sandyalcantar22 has been nearly unhittable these last 2 months.
(MLB x @MattressFirm) pic.twitter.com/8ositVijer
— MLB (@MLB) July 15, 2022
An Incredible Streak
Since May 11, Alcantara has thrown 12 straight starts of seven or more innings.
In fact, one has to think if the Marlins will keep him on the mound at this pace for the entire season.
He could surpass 230 innings, or even more, if they don’t slow him down a bit.
They don’t seem to have the desire to do that, though.
Since that date, he has a 1.24 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 94.2 innings.
The opposition has a meager .461 OPS against him, and his WHIP is 0.76 over that span.
In other words, he dominates the opposition with groundballs (career-high 56.5 ground ball percentage) and strikeouts, he covers a whole lot of innings, and he is very stingy with walks, hits, and runs.
He may very well be the best and most consistent pitcher in the league when adding all the ingredients into the mix.
He seems destined to a top-three Cy Young award finish, at the very least.
Can he lead the 43-45 Marlins to the playoffs for the first time since 2020?
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