SPRINGFIELD, Mo. • Sandy Alcantara initially thought he was in trouble when he was summoned into manager Johnny Rodriguez’s office Thursday afternoon at Hammons Field. His dread grew even more when he realized that Class AA Springfield pitching coach Jason Simontacchi was also in the room.
The hard-throwing righthander wasn’t expecting a call to the majors, although he had actually washed all of his laundry two weeks ago to be ready in case he was promoted from Springfield to Class AAA Memphis or St. Louis.
“Que ise ahora?” the Dominican Republic native asked his Cuban manager in their native language.