WASHINGTON -- Nationals manager Blake Butera found himself in an unusual scenario watching the game on Monday. Instead of the dugout, he was sitting in his office digesting his first Major League ejection when starting left-hander Andrew Alvarez entered the visitors’ clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park.
The rookie had just pitched a career-high 6 1/3 innings, and he had held the Phillies to two runs off three hits. But with one out in the seventh, he hit Bryan De La Cruz with a slider. The next at-bat, he walked Bryson Stott on five pitches.
“Being ejected from the game that night actually gave me another glimpse into Andrew Alvarez,” Butera said.
“... [He was] pretty upset with him hitting the batter that ultimately led to him coming out of the game. I don't think he knew I was in there, and he was just yelling at himself in his locker. I’m like, ‘Man, he really cares and sets a high standard for himself or a high bar for himself because he threw so well in that game.’ …
“He’s starting to get to that level where he expects more of himself. It's been fun to watch that maturation process where he leaves that Phillies game mad at himself, even though he had a really good outing, in my opinion.”
Alvarez, who has pitched in multiple roles this season, has another opportunity in the Nationals’ starting rotation. He got the ball again on Saturday to face the Reds, with All-Star Chase Burns (and his 2.35 ERA entering the game) on the mound. It was up to Alvarez to hold off Cincinnati's bats.
Alvarez extended his homerless streak to 51 2/3 innings in the Nationals’ 8-2 win. He delivered 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball on just 73 pitches with three hits, one walk and two strikeouts while the Nats took a 2-0 lead.
Butera replaced Alvarez in the sixth inning for matchups. He went with right-hander Max Kranick to face right-handed hitters Dane Myers and Eugenio Suárez. Kranick, though, gave up a two-run homer to Suárez to even the game at 2 apiece, which charged one run to Alvarez’s ledger.
Alvarez ended up with the no-decision in his ninth start of the season after the Nationals put up a four-run rally in the sixth and chased Burns from the game.
Alvarez’s growth is important to the Nationals’ starting rotation. The Nats traded southpaw Foster Griffin to the Guardians on Monday, and they designated right-hander Zack Littell for assignment on Wednesday. Recently acquired lefty Connelly Early is still rehabbing from left elbow inflammation, and the team pressed pause on his pitching out of caution when he experienced forearm tightness during his Aug. 4 bullpen.
Without his veteran lefty mentor on the team anymore, Alvarez is channeling what he learned from Griffin this season.
Don’t set expectations on results. Focus on the process.
Butera has seen Griffin’s advice translate on the mound.
“With pitch calling and understanding how to sequence, I think he's starting to really look at the game through a different lens instead of the results,” Butera said. “... If your process is right and the result doesn't end up being good, that doesn't necessarily mean you didn't do the right thing. Which is why it's baseball, and things happen like that. But I think he's starting to shift his mindset more to the stuff that matters most.”