Sixto Sanchez's first pitch as a Major League Baseball player whizzed past the Washington Nationals' Trea Turner and into Francisco Cervelli's glove for a called strike.
The radar gun's reading on the four-seam fastball: 98.4 mph.
Two pitches later, Sanchez hit triple digits for the first time in the big leagues. He would do that three more times in the inning and five times total throughout the game Saturday night at Nationals Park. That first inning ended with Sanchez striking out Asdrubal Cabrera with a 90.9 mph slider on the 12th pitch of the frame.
No nerves, at least none that were shown. Just the command and pure stuff the Marlins have seen during his time in the minor leagues.
"I've been working for this moment," Sanchez, 22, said through a translator during summer camp ahead of the season. "In the Dominican Republic, I was working to make sure I was at my best. Then, when I came back, I was ready to go. Just waiting for my moment."
The moment, finally, is here.
Sanchez, the Marlins' top prospect and the No. 24 prospect in all of baseball, made his MLB debut Saturday in the Marlins' 5-3 win in seven innings over the Nationals to split their doubleheader and improve to 11-10 on the season. Washington (10-14) won the first game of the set 5-4 earlier in the day.
Sanchez's final line: Six hits and three earned runs allowed over five innings of work. He struck out four and didn't walk a batter. Of his 66 pitches, 46 went for strikes.
His two mistakes: Home runs from Yan Gomes and Victor Robles on pitches high in the strike zone.
But Sanchez received enough help from the offense courtesy of a Corey Dickerson two-run home run, a two-run rally in the fourth and a Jon Berti sacrifice fly in the fifth.
It was a masterpiece in the present. It was also the latest signal that the Marlins' future is starting to arrive.
Player after player, top Marlins prospect after top Marlins prospect, has been given his opportunity in the big leagues this season. Eight of the Marlins' top-30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline have made their MLB debuts this year. All but one of them were acquired since the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group took over the franchise.
Three, outfielder Monte Harrison, first baseman Lewin Diaz and pitcher Jorge Guzman, have been sent back down after short stints. Three others, relievers Nick Neidert, Jordan Holloway and Alex Vesia, have been sidelined by the team's coronavirus outbreak that struck three games into the season.
The Marlins' hope is that Sanchez improves on his outing from Saturday and forces them to keep him on the roster even as three of Miami's starting pitchers sidelined by COVID-19 get closer to returning to the club.
"Usually guys like Sixto, they don't go bouncing back and forth," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said earlier this season. "Once you see him, you're like, 'OK, we can do something with that.' You want to make sure that guy is ready, and he doesn't come up here not prepared to physically compete."
