Alvarez shines in debut, helps end Nats' losing streak (updated)

Forget about the notion five weeks ago Andrew Alvarez might somehow pitch five scoreless innings in the major leagues. The mere notion at that time that Alvarez might pitch in the major leagues at all sounded pretty ludicrous.

The 26-year-old left-hander seemingly had stalled out at Triple-A Rochester, winless through his first 19 starts of the season, his ERA in the high 4.00s. As much as the Nationals needed all the pitching help they could get, Alvarez didn’t figure to make the list of prime candidates for a promotion.

Those who know him well, though, knew all along Alvarez wasn’t about to give up on his dream. He was going to find a way to put himself back in the mix somehow, some way. And when his moment did finally come this afternoon, he wasn’t going to waste it.

With five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, Alvarez made his major league debut one to remember. And thanks to some help from the Nationals lineup and bullpen, he was appropriately rewarded for it with a 2-0 victory over the Marlins, snapping the team’s eight-game losing streak in the process.

"It's hard to put into words," he said. "I'm just blessed and thankful. The team played awesome, and at the end of the day, the team won. It's such an honor to be a part of this. You dream of this as a kid. And to have it come to fruition is no more than a miracle."

The 2021 12th-round pick from Cal Poly becomes only the second Nationals starter since Stephen Strasburg in 2010 to win his big league debut, joining fellow lefty Mitchell Parker from one year ago. And Alvarez did something today neither Parker, Strasburg nor anyone else in his position had ever done.

He’s the first pitcher in club history to toss five scoreless innings in his MLB debut. (Lucas Giolito would’ve had a shot at it, as well, if not for a rain delay that abruptly ended his first career start after the fourth.) He joins Collin Balester as the only starters in club history to allow one hit over five or more innings in his debut.

"It's nice to see that we've got someone coming from Triple-A, and he did the job that he did," interim manager Miguel Cairo said. "That will tell you about player development. The players that come from there, they're ready to be here. They're ready to be in the big leagues. As he showed today, that's a really good job they've been doing there."

When the Nats needed a replacement for MacKenzie Gore, who landed on the 15-day injured list over the weekend with left shoulder inflammation, Alvarez had established himself as the obvious choice from Rochester. Not only was he already on the proper pitching schedule to start today, but he had turned around his once-wayward season by going 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA and 39 strikeouts over his last 30 1/3 innings.

Even so, Alvarez was blindsided when Triple-A manager Matt LeCroy made the announcement Saturday in the clubhouse, the rest of the Red Wings mobbing him to celebrate.

"I was planning to start Sunday in Jacksonville," he said, "and it came as a shock."

So Cairo handed the rookie the ball for a Labor Day series opener against Miami, and he made sure to put a familiar face behind the plate to help make this assignment a little more comfortable. C.J. Stubbs, called up Friday to replace the injured Drew Millas, got the nod at catcher, creating the Nationals’ first pitcher-catcher duo debuting on the same day since the long-forgotten Shairon Martis and Luke Montz on Sept. 4, 2008.

"When I found out I would be catching Alvy in his debut, it calmed me down," the 28-year-old Stubbs said. "It gave me some familiarity out there. I was obviously excited for him. And the fact we were able to go out there and do it together just made everything so special."

"I was having chills," Cairo said. "Because that was the first time they're in the big leagues: one was catching, the other was pitching. ... It was awesome to see them perform the way they did."

Stubbs’ presence surely helped, but it didn’t look like Alvarez needed much on this day. Calm and collected from the outset, he took the mound and went about his business with the poise of a seasoned veteran.

"When I first went out there, I was a little emotional," he said. "But I just felt at peace ... and I just felt calm out there."

He retired the side in the top of the first on 13 pitches, an inning that bizarrely saw plate umpire Brennan Miller ejected Marlins leadoff man Xavier Edwards five pitches into the game, prompting manager Clayton McCullough to storm out of the dugout screaming expletives at Miller yet survive his own ejection.

"My first stolen strike got an ejection," Stubbs said. "It's pretty funny to tell someone later down the line."

Alvarez allowed only two batters to reach across the first four innings, one via walk, one via CJ Abrams’ throwing error. He recorded his first career strikeout in the third, getting Joey Wiemer with a curveball, then added two more to open the top of the fourth.

The rookie issued another walk with one out in the fifth, then surrendered his one and only clean hit of the day when Victor Mesa Jr. sent a sinking liner to left field in front of James Wood for a single as the crowd stood and applauded the end of an unlikely no-hit bid.

Alvarez wound up facing only one jam, with runners on the corners and two outs in the fifth. He ran the count full against Wiemer but got him to strike out on a 3-2 slider, with Miller signaling the batter barely foul-tipped the ball into Stubbs’ mitt.

"I was just trusting my stuff there," he said. "I didn't know what the foul-tip was. You just take it. It was awesome."

He walked off the mound having thrown 81 pitches, a zero in the run column on the scoreboard. He probably could’ve kept going, but Cairo opted not to press his luck and let the kid depart on a high note, entrusting the rest of the game to his bullpen.

The Nationals had taken a 2-0 lead by then, scoring both runs in rapid succession in the bottom of the second. Daylen Lile’s triple to deep left-center brought Luis García Jr. all the way home from first. Lile then scored on Andrés Chaparro’s sacrifice fly to right, his team finally holding a lead at the end of an inning for the first time in 10 days.

"It's nice to have the lead and pitch like that," Cairo said. "And now, you just have to mix what is the best matchup for the hitters (Nats relievers) are going to face. It was nice that he got the lead, and right away he got a shutdown inning. That was good to see."

The bullpen, once the clear Achilles heel of the roster, has shockingly become a strength in recent weeks, and the unit kept that run going today. Clayton Beeter, Konnor Pilkington, Cole Henry and Jose A. Ferrer combined to toss four scoreless innings, extending the relief corps’ streak of scoreless innings across the last three days to 13.

Their efforts the previous two days came in vain because the Nats trailed the whole way. Not so today. On this day, the bullpen ensured the rookie starter would cap off his already memorable major league debut with a win.

It all would’ve sounded so implausible just a few weeks ago. Not to those who knew all along Alvarez had this in him.

"He’s a fighter," said infielder Nasim Nuñez, who, like Alvarez, was promoted from Triple-A today. "He struggled. He struggled a lot in the beginning. But I would go do my routine. I would see him in the gym after he struggled. OK, this dude really loves it. You can’t fake that for too long. You’re going to get exposed. But he’s not going to get exposed, because it’s not fake. He just kept doing it. And look at him: He’s here."