MIAMI -- Have yourself a day, Sandy Alcantara.
The Miami Marlins' starting pitcher was dominant from start to finish on Sunday, throwing his second complete-game shutout of the year as the Marlins blanked the Kansas City Royals 9-0 at Marlins Park to avoid a three-game sweep.
Alcantara is just the 12th pitcher in Marlins history to throw multiple complete-game shutouts in a season and the first since Henderson Alvarez III threw three in the 2014.
He is also one of just three pitchers to throw multiple complete-game shutouts this year, joining the Chicago White Sox's Lucas Giolito and the Cleveland Indians' Shane Bieber.
The lanky 6-5, 197-pound righty, who turned 24 on Saturday, needed 102 pitches to blank the Royals, who won the first two games of the series 3-0 on Friday and 7-2 on Saturday. Alcantara scattered four hits and two walks while striking out eight.
His first complete-game effort came on May 19 against the New York Mets, another Sunday afternoon outing in which he held the opposition to just two hits.
Alcantara's lone inning of trouble came in the eighth, when he loaded the bases with one out on a walk to Nick Dini and back-to-back singles from Humberto Arteaga and Whit Merrifield. One pitch later, Cheslor Cuthbert grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Alcantara and the Marlins walked off the field with the shutout 13 pitches after that.
It was the latest in a string of strong performances for Alcantara. He has a 2.68 ERA over his past six starts (13 earned runs in 43 2/3 innings) and has struck out 38 batters in that span.
And Alcantara had more than enough run support to get the win.
Starlin Castro opened scoring with a solo home run in the first, his 18th of the year. Miami then tacked on four more in the fourth and two runs each in the fifth and sixth.
Every Marlins starting position player recorded at least one hit. Garrett Cooper had three hits. Miguel Rojas, Harold Ramirez and Castro each had two. Ramirez, Castro and Lewis Brinson each drove in two runs.
