By Hal McCoy
What was expected was presented, a double-sided pitching clinic to rival all pitching clinics.
It was Chase Burns against Sandy Alcantara and both pitched as if it would be their last stand on a pitcher’s mound.
It was Cincinnati Reds 1, Miami Marlins 0 and that says it all.
The match-up was two 13-game winners and it was power versus finesse.
Alcantara came into the game with 20 straight scoreless innings, a guy who uses seven different pitches.
Burns is all 99 to 100 miles an hour fastballs and 93 miles an hour disappearing sliders.
Both went seven innings: no runs, four hits for Burns and one run, three hits for Alcantara, who stretched his scoreless innings streak to 25 before the Reds scored in the sixth.
And what a contrast.
Through five innings, Burns had six strikeouts and Alcantara had none, but he retired six Reds on first pitches.
Burns ended up with eight strikeouts and no walks. He went to 3-and-2 on six batters and struck out four of them and the other two made outs.
The one run?
As so often happens in a game like this, it took an unusual way for the team to score the run.
It happened in the sixth inning with catcher Tyler Stephenson on first base with two outs and two strikes on Eugenio Suarez.
Suarez hump-backed a ball toward left fielder Heriberto Hernandez. He tried to make a sliding catch. He missed and the ball skittered past him.
Stephenson, world-class jogger, chugged all the way home and the Reds had the run they needed for their 20th win in 32 one-run decisions.
“Fortunately for us, the ball slipped by him and Stephenson kickined into. . .second gear? I don’t know, I don’t know if he has a third gear but I give him credit,” said Reds manager Tito Francona.
Suarez was credited with a double, his 1,500th career hit.
And nine of the Reds last 10 wins have been by one run.
Suarez best described Burns’ performance, really described it well by saying, “He was special. He is a really good pitcher. He was really good. He was really, really good. He deserves it and he did a really good job today.”
And how was it facing Alcantara, nicknamed ‘The Sandman’ because he puts hitters to sleep?
“He is very tough to hit,” he said. “He came in pitching very well and he throws hard sinkers, but that was our goal, trying to beat him with the little things. We didn’t try to do too much because we all knew how good he was.
“I just tried to put the ball in play and see what happens,” he added. “Try to create chaos and help the team to win.”
What happened was the chaos of the Hernandez gaffe and the deciding run.
Burns is 14-2 after losing his previous start in Washington and the Reds are 17-6 in his starts and 42-56 in the other games.
Only one Marlin reached seconnd base when Otto Lopez singled to open the seventh and stole second base.
That’s when Burns is at his best, that’s when the adrenaline flows faster. Griffin Conine struck out on three pitches, taking strike three, Hernandez struck out, taking strike three, and Javier Sanoja grounded out.
“I was just getting back to my roots, not trying to be too perfect out there,” said Burns, discounting the fact he was near-perfect. “I just tried to attack the zone and let them put the ball in play. I tried to put the ball over the plate and get some zeros.”
After the Reds scored the run in the sixth, Burns said, “That got the juices flowing and kinda fires you up. You try to be your own reliever, basically. You go out there and try to put up another zero.”
Speaking of relief pitchers, when Burns left after 93 pitches, Blake Burke made his league-leading 62nd appearance in the eighth and struck out the side.
That left it up to closer Emilio Pagan, making only his second appearance in 10 days due to sore fingers. He went -1-2-3 for the save, his 10th straight save or win.
The first batter he faced, speedy Jakob Marsee, rolled one up the first base line. Pagan grabbed it while falling down and flipped it to first for the out.
“I want to play shortstop tomorrow,” Pagan told Francona.
Burns said it was an additional challenge and incentive pitching against Alcantara.
“I watched him a lot even before I was with the Reds,” he said. “It was pretty cool going against a guy like that and to get the win.”
It was only the second time this season Burns pitchedinto the seventh inning as his pitches and innings mount to beyond his previous threshhold.
But Francona is not concerned.
“I thought he was better today than he was in a long while,” he said. “It was like he got his second wind. He looked pretty fresh to me.
“He was good from the git-go,” he added. “He had to be because their guy. . .well, if you’re not trying to beat him, he’s fun to watch. You had two really good pitchers going against each other.
“Chase got a lot of early-pitch outs that allowed him to go deep into the game,” he said. “He was good, really good. He had to be.”
And as Suarez said, he was really, really, really good.