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Friday night’s series opener against the Pirates turned into a wild one, even though the first five innings were pretty uneventful. The Nationals came back from a 3-0 deficit to score six runs in the sixth and seventh innings, taking a 6-3 lead into the ninth. Then Jose A. Ferrer nearly blew the entire lead, only to be bailed out by James Wood’s perfect throw from left field to the plate for the second-to-last out of what wound up a 6-5 victory.
They’re back at it later this afternoon, with a matchup of rookies who have a combined six major league appearances between them.
Andrew Alvarez makes his third career start, and his first two have gone exceptionally well. The left-hander tossed five scoreless in his debut against the Marlins, then held the Cubs to two runs over 4 2/3 innings last time out. Now he faces a Pittsburgh lineup that has scored the fewest runs in baseball this season (532). (For comparison’s sake, the Nats have scored 632 runs, which ranks 20th out of 30 clubs.
Alvarez wasn’t considered a top prospect. Bubba Chandler definitely was, the third-round pick in the 2021 Draft entering this season as a top-15 prospect in the sport by multiple outlets. The Pirates used the right-hander in relief three times, now he makes his second start (though he got rocked by the Brewers for nine runs in 2 2/3 innings in that previous start.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 5 mph out to left field
PIRATES
SS Jared Triolo
LF Tommy Pham
RF Bryan Reynolds
2B Nick Gonzales
DH Andrew McCutchen
CF Alexander Canario
1B Nick Yorke
C Henry Davis
3B Cam Devanney
RHP Bubba Chandler
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
1B Josh Bell
DH Daylen Lile
2B Luis García Jr.
C Jorge Alfaro
RF Dylan Crews
3B Brady House
CF Robert Hassell III
LHP Andrew Alvarez
