No complete game, but another dominant outing for Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara vs Nationals

The crowd at loanDepot park made its opinion felt on Saturday as Sandy Alcantara worked the latest gem of his Cy Young Award-worthy season.

They chanted the Miami Marlins ace’s name as he mowed through the Washington Nationals’ overmatched lineup for eight innings.

And they let out a serenade of boos when Alcantara didn’t make his way back to the mound for the ninth inning of the Marlins’ eventual 4-1 win over the Nationals.

But while Alcantara didn’t get the opportunity to work his sixth complete game of the season — and what would have been his second in a row against this Nationals team — he still added yet another quality outing to a long list of quality outings this season.

Alcantara’s final line: One earned run allowed on three hits, one walk and one hit by pitch with 11 strikeouts on 99 pitches.

Alcantara said he respected and understood manager Don Mattingly’s decision to end his start after eight innings. Alcantara has already logged an MLB-leading 220 2/3 innings, a mark that is tied for the eighth-most in franchise history in a single season. He is in line to make two more starts this season — Friday at the Milwaukee Brewers and Oct. 5 against the Atlanta Braves in the Marlins’ regular-season finale — and Mattingly said pregame Saturday the plan is for Alcantara to be on the mound both of those games.

“The fact that Sandy is in the Cy Young race and no one’s said he’s got it,” Mattingly said, “I think you’ve got to give Sandy every opportunity to let people know just how good he is.”

But that doesn’t mean Alcanrara liked the decision to not have a chance for the complete game.

“It’s always hard,” Alcantara said, “because I don’t want to leave the game. It doesn’t matter how many innings I’ve thrown. They know that I want to finish all the games. Ninety-nine pitches? That’s nothing for me. I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job to try to prepare myself and give my heart for my team.”

His effort and his success has been well noted.

Alcantara’s 2.32 ERA after 31 starts trails only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Julio Urias (2.25) in the National League. Urias, it should be noted, has pitched just 164 innings over 29 starts — 56 2/3 fewer innings than Alcantara in just two fewer starts.

In addition to five total complete games and a sixth game in which he also pitched nine innings, Alcantara has 13 starts this season in which he has pitched at least eight innings and has allowed no more than two earned runs in any of those 13 outings.

Saturday was the latest such effort. The lone run he allowed was a two-out solo home run to Nationals first baseman Joey Meneses in the first inning. After that? Alcantara allowed just two hits, one walk and one hit by pitch. He retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the eighth inning before retreating to the dugout for good.

His final pitch of the game? A 101 mph four-seam fastball at the top of the zone that Lane Thomas whiffed on for Alcantara’s 11th strikeout before giving way to Dylan Floro, who earned the save with a perfect ninth inning.

“It’s special,” Floro said of Alcantara’s season. “This guy gives you eight or nine it feels like every time he starts. It’s just unbelievable. You don’t see that too often now in the game.”

The Marlins gave Alcantara run support via a JJ Bleday two-out, two-run single in the first, a Bryan De La Cruz home run in the fourth and a Miguel Rojas RBI double in the sixth.

De La Cruz finished the game with a career-high four hits and was a triple shy of the cycle to continue his torrid run of success since being recalled this month, but the outfielder had bigger priorities on Saturday considering who was pitching.

“I’ve gotta say, sometimes I’m a little afraid [to play defense behind Alcantara],” De La Cruz said, “because I don’t want to commit an error. I’m always concentrating on not making mistakes. You can see he’s a big guy on the mound and you don’t want to make mistakes. ... I can go maybe without a hit, but no errors.”