Andrew

Alvarez

Alvarez held the Giants scoreless through four innings, but was working around plenty of traffic as he stranded eight baserunners through the four frames. He allowed the first two batters to reach in the fifth. That would be it for Alvarez, departing at 90 pitches. Both inherited runners would come in to score. He struck out four. The 26-year-old left-hander will take a 3.70 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, and a 26/11 K/BB ratio across 24 1/3 innings into a home start against the Royals on Monday.

A solid first start for Alvarez this year after he previously posted a 4.02 ERA in 15 2/3 innings over five relief appearances. There’s no real upside here, but Alvarez is more likely to give the Nationals five decent innings each time out than a few other pitchers the team has tried in recent years. He’ll likely continue to start for now and face the Giants next week.

It was by far his worst bulk appearance of the year -- his first with more than two runs allowed and also his first with multiple walks. He threw a season high 74 pitches to get those three innings against what was, on paper, a Padres lineup that hasn’t hit lefties well all year. Assuming the Nationals want to continue to give him bulk appearances, Alvarez is lined up to do so against the Marlins next week.

Alvarez has a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings, will get a better shot at a win with this news, and the Padres haven’t hit well at all this year. It’s hard to recommend the Alvarez streaming start, but we could definitely see it working out.

Alvarez worked 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball in relief of Miles Mikolas in his brief stint in the majors during April. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was again asked to go a distance at some point over the weekend, though he’s not currently slated as a bulk pitcher in any of those contests.

Alvarez pitched well with 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, but the 26-year-old will return to Triple-A to give the Nats a fresh arm for the coming week. The corresponding move will be announced Monday.

The 26-year-old left-hander allowed just three hits on the day while striking out five. Alvarez came on for Miles Mikolas to get the final out of the fifth inning, then remained in the game to fire four scoreless frames to complete the combined shutout. He got seven swings and misses on 62 pitches on the day, posting a CSW of 29 percent. Given how successful this alignment worked out, don’t be surprised to see him piggyback Miles Mikolas once again on Friday against the White Sox in Chicago.

The 26-year-old southpaw will add some length to a Nationals’ bullpen that has been taxed lately. Alvarez was terrific in five starts for the Nats in 2025, posting a 2.31 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and a 20/10 K/BB ratio over 23 1/3 innings of work.

The 26-year-old was solid in spring training, allowing two runs on five hits in nine innings while striking out 11 and walking five. He also posted a solid 2.31 ERA in 23 1/3 innings with the Nationals in 2025. He will head to Triple-A to continue to work on refining his command, but he should make MLB starts this season.

The 26-year-old southpaw piled up five strikeouts on the day and didn’t allow a free pass. The lone baserunner against him came on a two-out double off the bat of Yordan Alvarez in the opening inning. Alvarez got six swings and misses on 41 pitches on the afternoon, posting a terrific CSW of 41 percent. If he keeps this up, he’s going to pitch himself into the Nationals’ rotation mix to start the season.