Sandy Alcantara start falls apart in nightmare 4th inning

Sandy Alcantara cruised along early in a start Saturday afternoon against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, tossing three shutout innings. The Marlins right-hander was coming off his first career complete game shutout last weekend versus the New York Mets, seemingly turning around his inconsistent 2019 campaign.

However, the fourth frame Alcantara pitched in D.C. was one he’d rather forget.

After surrendering back-to-back hits to Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon, 20-year-old sensation Juan Soto came through with an RBI single to right. Moments later, Soto beat the tag at home plate, after Brian Anderson threw the baseball high to Bryan Holaday, extending the Nationals’ lead to 2-0.

With the bases filled and one out, Yan Gomes’ double blew open the game, as Washington expanded its lead to 5-0.

Some bad luck for Alcantara on that bases-clearing hit—measured by Statcast at a 55.5 mph exit velocity and five-degree launch angle, similar batted balls in previous MLB games have produced a .090 batting average. That being said, he has only himself to blame for getting into the jam in the first place, which included a dangerously high fastball that grazed Victor Robles in the cheek.

Alcantara would last five total innings on Saturday, tossing 82 pitches. His overall ERA increased to 4.50.