Andrew Alvarez struggles with command in Nationals’ loss to Rockies

Andrew Alvarez’s final curveball of the night was bittersweet.

Sweet because it generated a swing and miss from Cole Carrigg for Alvarez’s sixth strikeout of the night. Bitter because Alvarez spiked the pitch, causing the ball to bounce over the head of catcher Harry Ford.

As Ford attempted to retrieve the ball, Jordan Beck sprinted from second to home and scored after third baseman Brady House cut off his running lane and was called for obstruction.

Alvarez shook his head as he walked toward the mound, the final sequence for the 27-year-old southpaw in the Nationals’ 3-1 loss to the Rockies on Tuesday night at Nationals Park.

“He’s been throwing the ball great, and I don’t think tonight was like horrible by any means,” manager Blake Butera said. “I don’t think he had his best stuff tonight but I thought he was still able to keep us in the game and give us a pretty good outing overall.”

Alvarez wasn’t the sole reason the Nationals lost. Far from it. The Nationals’ offense scored one run on Daylen Lile’s second homer in as many days and finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Washington has scored four runs or fewer in nine of their last 11 games.

The loss didn’t detract from the fact that August has been Alvarez’s best month of the season. Opponents entered Tuesday batting .156 with a .504 on-base-plus-slugging percentage against him in his four August starts, resulting in a 2.42 ERA.

Yet Alvarez’s most glaring flaw continued to plague him: his command. In Alvarez’s 20 appearances this season, he’s walked at least one batter in 18 of them. In half of those 18 outings, he’s walked at least two, including Tuesday night.

“Most of the time you’re going to go out, you’re going to have your best stuff maybe 25% of the time,” he said. “So it’s always just pitching and working your way around a lineup.”

Alvarez has used a rearranged pitch mix to attack hitters this season and found success. He doesn’t throw his four-seam fastball and slider as much as he did in 2025, while he’s increased his curveball and sinker usage.

He doesn’t blow hitters away with velocity, but he’s generated more swings and misses and gotten batters to chase more pitches outside the strike zone with proper sequencing of pitches.

That showed up in the third inning after Alvarez retired the first seven hitters he faced. He allowed a single and walk, then struck out Jake McCarthy with a sinker and Carrigg with a curveball to get the final two outs.

Early this season in Triple-A Rochester, Alvarez walked 11.1% of the batters he faced. Even so, he struck out 31.3% of opposing hitters, meaning he was able to get away with the free passes.

So far in the major leagues, Alvarez has walked 10.6% of his batters but struck out just 21.8% of them; hitters have been putting the ball in play and making him pay.

“There was only two walks tonight, but just felt like he wasn’t quite able to land some pitches where he wanted to,” Butera said.

To open the fourth, Alvarez allowed a solo homer to Hunter Goodman on a fastball over the heart of the plate. He walked the ensuing hitter, TJ Rumfield. Two batters later, Connor Norby hit an RBI double to extend the lead. Then, in the fifth, came the wild pitch to end his outing after allowing two singles earlier in the frame.

For most of Alvarez’s start, his fastball missed above the zone. He was able get ahead of hitters with his curveball but then struggled to locate it and put hitters away in pitchers’ counts. He was able to salvage those mistakes by staying ahead of the Rockies hitters but eventually Colorado broke through.

“His curveball is really good,” Butera said. “When he just throws it, he has good results. I think maybe it was a case of just trying to do a little bit more when he had two strikes to get the punchout.”

Even though Butera credited Alvarez for not getting derailed in Tuesday’s outing, Alvarez didn’t care to make excuses for his performance.

Butera added the next step in Alvarez’s development is finding ways to raise the floor of his worst outings when he doesn’t have his best stuff. Even on those days, his pitches can still play.

The Nationals’ bullpen did everything Alvarez and Butera could’ve hoped, combining to pitch 4 1/3 scoreless innings after he exited and giving Washington a chance to win. But Colorado’s bullpen allowed two hits as the Nationals’ offense once again fell silent in the late innings.

“I really don’t think anything has changed,” Lile said. “We could turn the game around at any given moment. ... Right now, it’s just baseball. Hopefully, we can just flip things around and keep trusting each other.”