Sandy Alcantara complete game leads Marlins past Yankees. Takeaways from the win

Miami Marlins ace and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara tossed his third complete game of the season in a 3-1 win over the New York Yankees on Saturday at loanDepot park.

The Marlins improve to 61-57 on the season. The Yankees fall to 60-57.

It’s the 12th career complete game for Alcantara, all with the Marlins. That’s the third-most in franchise history, behind only Dontrelle Willis (15) and A.J. Burnett (14).

Alcantara held the Yankees to just five hits and two walks while striking out ten. He needed 116 pitches to log his 27 outs.

His other complete games this season were his shutout of the Minnesota Twins on April 4 and his nine innings of one-run ball against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 26.

The win came in front of an announced crowd of 33,908, the fifth-largest non-Opening Day crowd in loanDepot park history and the largest non-Opening Day crowd since April 5, 2014, against the San Diego Padres.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

What worked well for Sandy Alcantara?

Alcantara was efficient with his pitch count Saturday despite rarely having a clean inning.

He allowed a baserunner in five of his first eight innings, yet threw 16 or fewer pitches in all but one inning. This included three innings where he needed less than 10 pitches.

The only inning when his pitch count got elevated was the seventh, when he gave up his lone run of the game on an Isiah Kinler-Falefa single that scored Billy McKinney, who reached on a one-out walk and moved to second on a balk. Alcantara responded in the eighth by striking out the side in order — Kyle Higashioka looking, Jake Bauers and Aaron Judge swinging.

Alcantara entered the ninth inning with 104 pitches, getting an ovation from the crowd as he emerged from the dugout. He allowed a leadoff single to Gleyber Torres before striking out Giancarlo Stanton, getting McKinney to fly out to left field and Kiner-Falefa to ground out to third base.

Alcantara also moved his way up the Marlins’ record book in the win. With his fifth strikeout on Saturday, Alcantara moved into third place on the Marlins all-time strikeout list. He trails just Ricky Nolasco (1,001) and Josh Johnson (832). Alcantara now has 762 strikeouts with the Marlins.

Luis Arraez: Power hitter

All-Star second baseman Luis Arraez batted third in the lineup for the Marlins on Saturday for the first time since May 31 and immediately came through for Miami in his first at-bat.

Arraez sent a middle-in fastball from Yankees opener Michael King a projected 409 feet to right-center field for a two-run home run.

It was the longest home run of Arraez’s career, topping his previous long of 403 feet, done twice in 2022, and the fifth overall home run out of 18 he has hit as a big leaguer to go at least 400 feet.

A Joey Wendle RBI single that scored Jake Burger in the fourth inning pushed Miami’s lead to 3-0.

A chance to take the series

The Marlins wrap up their three-game series against the Yankees at 1:40 p.m. Sunday. Rookie Eury Perez will start for Miami opposite Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.