Marlins 1, Twins 0: Alcantara tosses a shutout

Kenta Maeda took the mound for the Twins today and turned in a very nice start, but Sandy Alcantara was nearly untouchable. The single run scored today came off a solo homer by Avisail Garcia in the 2nd inning, his first of the year.

Alcantara had a perfect game going until the 4th inning, when Trevor Larnach hit an infield single with 2 outs, but nothing came of it. In the 7th, after Larnach walked and advanced to 2nd, Alcantara got Joey Gallo to strike out to stop the Twins best scoring threat of the day.

For his part, Maeda was looking pretty good. He picked up 3 strikeouts in the 2nd and 5th innings. Through 5 innings he had 9 strikeouts and had allowed just 3 hits with 0 walks. In the 6th, though, Jon Berti led off with a single, then Maeda came out the game with a trainer. Not what anyone wanted to see in what was otherwise a great day for Kenta. Emilio Pagan came in and tossed a couple scoreless innings, with a pair of strikeouts. Jovani Moran tossed a scoreless 8th, leaving one last chance for the Twins to do something on offense.

In the 9th, after a 1-out single by Carlos Correa, Alcantara got Larnach to hit into a double play to end the game. His final line was 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 5 SO, 0 R.

Not a whole lot to say about this one, sometimes you run into a Cy Young pitcher. At least it was a very quick game, clocking in at just under 2 hours.

Update: After the game, Rocco Baldelli said that Kenta Maeda is fine.

Studs:

Kenta Maeda: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 9 SO

Trevor Larnach: 1-3, BB

Michael A. Taylor: 1-3

Duds:

The rest of the lineup: 1-27

Thanks for joining the game thread everyone!