WASHINGTON _ There was only one All-Star on the mound at Nationals Park on Wednesday. Just three days earlier, MLB announced the rosters for the 2019 All-Star Game and, with every team required to have at least one player in the game, Sandy Alcantara was surprisingly picked to represent the Miami Marlins.
Stephen Strasburg, who started for the Washington Nationals in their 3-1 win Thursday, unsurprisingly was not selected, although he is one of the best starting pitchers in the majors when he's at his best. When Alcantara travels to Cleveland next week to play in his first All-Star Game, he'll be surrounded with luminaries, an experience the Marlins think can only benefit the rookie's rapid development.
"As kids, I think probably all of us that played watched the All-Star Game, and it's because it's more of a spectacle and the best of the best are there," manager Don Mattingly said. "It can really help lift your confidence. Hopefully you take that into your season. You continue your improvement knowing that you're not as good as your going to be. Hopefully he keeps that attitude."
For more than five innings in his final start before he heads to Progressive Field, Alcantara went pitch for pitch with a three-time All-Star. Strasburg went 7 1/3 innings and for the first five of those innings Alcantara matched him. Only the penultimate batter Alcantara faced could crack him. Second baseman Brian Dozier belted a two-run home run on Alcantara's 102nd pitch of the game for the right-handed pitcher's only blemish in front of 25,483 in Washington and it was all the Nationals needed to beat the Marlins (32-52) for the fifth time in nine days.
In its last 14 games, Miami is 0-5 against Washington (44-41) and 7-2 against everyone else. Even another strong start from Alcantara (4-8) couldn't prevent what has become inevitable.
Alcantara mostly avoided trouble throughout his entire start. He only gave up four hits and two of those came in the sixth inning. Before the sixth inning, Alcantara's only other major bit of trouble popped up in the fourth inning when he issued a pair of walks and Miguel Rojas committed a rare error at shortstop with one out, but Alcantara quickly regrouped and collected two of his four strikeouts to escape a bases-loaded jam.
Aside from the home run, Alcantara's only other serious issue were the four walks, the last of which immediately followed Dozier's homer and forced Mattingly to pull his starting pitcher after 5 2/3 innings _ only the second time since May he failed to go at least six innings.
As good as Alcantara was for most of his outing, Strasburg (10-4) looked even more like the pitchers Alcantara will share the field with Tuesday in Ohio. The righty, who entered Thursday with the fourth most strikeouts in the National League, carved through the Marlins for 7 1/3 innings. He allowed only two hits and struck out 14 batters, including three on nine pitches in the fourth for the first immaculate inning of his career. He only walked two batters and left in the eighth with two runners on after striking out Brian Anderson, who pinch hit with a chance to give Miami a late lead.
Although Rojas gave the Marlins another bit of life with a single off Fernando Rodney to load the bases immediately after Strasburg exited, the relief pitcher got outfielder Harold Ramirez to ground into a double play to end the threat. Washington could then hand the ball off to Sean Doolittle, who held off Miami for his 19th save of the season.
