Sandy Alcantara’s struggles with command costly in Marlins’ Opening Day loss to Mets

Sandy Alcantara said he doesn’t get those nerves or jitters anymore when Opening Day rolls around. The Miami Marlins’ ace has been here before and done that before.

But there’s always a sense of unpredictability on that first day of the season, a great unknown.

That was true Thursday for Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner who was making his franchise-record fourth consecutive Opening Day start. The 27-year-old righty began struggling with his command midway through his outing and didn’t get through six innings in Miami’s 5-3 loss to the New York Mets to open the 2023 season.

Alcantara’s final line on Thursday: Three runs (two earned runs) on three hits and four walks with two strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. He threw 96 pitches, just 57 of which landed for strikes, and two of the four players he walked wound up scoring.

“I was a little bit out of control,” Alcantara said. “Four walks? I feel so bad.”

It was an anomaly of an outing for Alcantara. In 32 starts last season, a year in which he became the first Marlins pitcher to ever win the Cy Young Award, he allowed four walks or more just twice — both of which came within his first five starts.

The first, like this year, came on Opening Day when he walked five over five innings in a loss to the San Francisco Giants. The second came on May 1 in a loss to the Seattle Mariners. In his final 27 starts, he walked no more than three batters in a given outing and even only did that four times.

But on Thursday, free passes did him in.

After opening the game with two scoreless innings, Alcantara issued a leadoff, four-pitch walk to Daniel Vogelbach, who then reached third on an Omar Narvaez single and scored on a Brandon Nimmo sacrifice fly to give the Mets an early 1-0 lead. Alcantara threw 21 pitches in the third inning after needed just 26 total to get through the first two.

He gave up another leadoff walk in the fourth, this time to Starling Marte, but stranded the runner by getting Francisco Lindor to line out to right field, Pete Alonso to ground out to third base and Jeff McNeil to line out to first base.

Alcantara settled in momentarily with a perfect fifth before the Mets did him in in the sixth inning.

Another walk, this time to Nimmo with one out. A groundball single up the middle that, coupled with a throwing error from center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., put runners on second and third with one out. A Lindor sacrifice fly drove in the second run. A fourth and final walk, this time to Alonso, put runners on the corners before McNeil hit a groundball up the middle that got by both Luis Arraez and Joey Wendle to push the Mets’ lead to 3-0.

First-year manager Skip Schumaker made his way to the mound. His ace’s night was done.

“They took good at-bats,” Schumaker said. “Credit to them.”

The Marlins rallied for three runs in the bottom half of the sixth — capped by a Garrett Cooper two-run home run — to tie the game and leave Alcantara with a no-decision, but the Mets re-took the lead with two runs in the seventh.

While the loss stings, Alcantara is already looking ahead to Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, his first chance at redemption.

“It’s the first game,” Alcantara said. “I know I have more opportunities to not walk anybody. I know what I have to do.”

Added Schumaker: “I’ll take my chances with Sandy any day of the week.”