Alvarez Powers Nationals Past Angels 6-5
Washington has Los Angeles's number early this season, and Andrew Alvarez made sure that trend continued Saturday night. He turned in a monster outing worth 57.5 fantasy points, and the Nationals held on for a 6-5 win over the Angels, their second straight victory over Los Angeles this young season.
The final score looked like a coin flip, but the story of this one was Alvarez shutting down the Angels lineup. He was the best player on the field by a wide margin, and it wasn't particularly close. When a starting pitcher nearly doubles the fantasy output of every other player in the game, that's usually the difference between a win and a loss, and Saturday was no exception.
Washington's offense didn't need to do much heavy lifting behind that kind of pitching performance, but they still found ways to add on. James Wood continued to look like the middle-of-the-order force the Nationals need him to be, posting 26.0 fantasy points with the kind of impact at-bats that turn one-run games into two-run cushions. CJ Abrams chipped in 24.0 points from the shortstop spot, doing his usual damage on the bases and in the gaps. Abimelec Ortiz added 23.5 points at first base, and catcher Keibert Ruiz kept the bottom of the order honest with 21.5 points of his own. That's four Nationals regulars north of 20 fantasy points in the same game, which is the kind of lineup depth that wins series, not just single games.
The Angels didn't go quietly. Vaughn Grissom was the best player on their side of the diamond, putting up 29.0 fantasy points at second base in a losing effort. Wade Meckler matched Angels starter Walbert Ureña's 23.0-point outing with a night of his own at the plate, and Denzer Guzman weighed in with 18.0 points. There was real offensive firepower in that lineup Saturday. The problem was it came against a Washington pitching staff that simply had the better night, and in a 6-5 final, the handful of extra fantasy points Alvarez generated on the mound were the ballgame.
Ureña took the loss after a 23.0-point start of his own, which under normal circumstances would be plenty to win most nights. Instead he ran into a buzz saw. Blake Weiman worked out of the bullpen for Los Angeles and added 10.5 points, but it wasn't enough support for an offense that scratched across five runs and still came up short. Mike Trout was relatively quiet by his standards, finishing with 8.5 points, a sign that Los Angeles's lineup still has another gear it hasn't found yet through the first week.
For Washington, this is now back-to-back wins over the Angels to open the year, a small sample but an emphatic one. The rotation looks like it can carry this team on nights the bats go cold, and Wood and Abrams give the Nationals a top of the order that can punish mistakes. If Alvarez's Saturday outing is a sign of things to come, Washington's pitching staff could be the story of their season rather than an afterthought.
The Angels, meanwhile, need to find answers fast. Losing back-to-back games to the same club, even with individual performances like Grissom's 29.0-point night, is not the start manager and front office envisioned. The power is there. Guzman and Meckler both flashed it Saturday. But until the pitching staff finds consistency, Los Angeles is going to keep losing games it has a real chance to win.
It's Week 1, and there's a long way to go before anyone reads too much into a two-game stretch. But early trends have a way of setting a tone, and right now that tone belongs to Washington. For fans building lineups on JockBroker, Alvarez's performance is exactly the kind of arm you want anchoring your roster on a night like this, a reminder that in baseball, a great start still tends to be the surest bet on the board.
