Postgamer #22: Nats shutout San Fran in salvage game: A Recap

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Ryan MacReynolds

The Nationals pulled off a 3-0 win this afternoon in the final tilt of this weekend’s three-game series against San Francisco, and they did it behind a shutout performance from a three-man pitching combo that I promise you nobody could’ve predicted. PJ Poulin, Miles Mikolas, and Andrew Alvarez, freshly up from Triple-A Rochester, combined for an eight-hit shutout to salvage a win for the Nationals in this series. The offense came all in the bottom half of the fifth against Robbie Ray, and that three-run frame would be the only scoring we saw at Nationals Park today.

The Action

The game didn’t go without some jams for the Nats’ pitchers, as there were numerous innings that required clutch outs to be picked up. The Giants put runners on first and second in each of the first two innings, and with Miles Mikolas on the mound, that hasn’t exactly been a recipe for success thusfar this season, but he held firm this afternoon, getting a lineout to end the first inning and a strikeout to end the second threat.

The first threat of the game from Washington’s offense came in the bottom of the third inning. Keibert Ruiz led off the frame with a single, and James Wood followed with a walk to put men on first and second with nobody out and a huge opportunity for the Nats to hop out to an early lead. Unfortunately for the good guys, Robbie Ray was able to work through the next three hitters successfully to put out the fire and keep the game scoreless headed into the middle innings.

The Giants put two runners on base again in the fourth, making it three of the first four innings in which they’ve done so. Once again, though, Miles Mikolas was able to come up with a huge strikeout of Willy Adames to end the inning and keep San Fran off the scoreboard.

The bottom of the fifth finally saw some action on the scoreboard, as the Nationals scored the only three runs of the entire game in this middle frame behind some early hits and a big blast to punctuate the rally. Nasim Nunez led off the inning with a single and a stolen base, and Keibert Ruiz followed with his second hit of the game, this one being an RBI double, putting Washington ahead 1-0. Two batters later, the game was busted open, as Curtis Mead got ahold of a first pitch changeup and sent it sailing over the left field fence, scoring him and Ruiz to make it 3-0 on Mead’s second long ball of the season.

The Nationals gave the ball to Andrew Alvarez with two outs in the fifth, the same day that he was brought up to the big leagues from Triple-A Rochester as the corresponding move with Paxton Schultz being sent down. Today was Andrew’s scheduled start day, so Blake Butera had made the move to piggyback him off of Mikolas to try and get the Nats through the full nine innings. Alvarez impressed in his limited big league time last September, and he picked up right where he left off today. Besides one jam in the eighth inning, mind you it only occurred because of a CJ Abrams error, Alvarez held down the fort on the bump for the last 4.1 innings of this afternoon’s game, and really made a strong case to Paul Toboni and company for why they may need to pay a little bit more consideration to Alvarez’s role with this team.

  • Robbie Ray: 6 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs (3 earned), 1 walk, 7 strikeouts, 93 pitches
  • Miles Mikolas: 4 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 61 pitches
  • Andrew Alvarez: 4.1 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 5 strikeouts, 62 pitches

Besides a random Joey Weimer double in the sixth, the Nats’ offense was pretty silent over the final three innings, making Andrew Alvarez’s performance so much more important. The Giants threatened with a leadoff double in the top of the ninth inning, but Alvarez retired the next three batters to finish off the ballgame and put a MUCH-needed curly W in the books on this Sunday afternoon.

What’s Next?

The Nats will stay home and wait on the Atlanta Braves to get to town tonight after their Sunday Night game in Philadelphia. Tomorrow night, the Nats and Braves will begin a four-game series in DC, with a 6:45 first pitch time for game one tomorrow night. The Braves will throw the right-handed Bryce Elder (2-1, 0.77 ERA), one of the most unlucky standouts so far through his first four starts of the season. Elder is coming off a year where he pitched to a 5.30 ERA, one year removed from the 6.52 ERA he posted in 2024, so the Nats will have to hope they can get him back to his recent years’ form tomorrow night. The homestanders will counter with Jake Irvin (1-2, 6.16 ERA), who’s coming off two gutsy road outings, and despite the high ERA, has been pretty solid for them thus far.

Down on the Farm

AAA Rochester

AA Harrisburg

  • Game in progress at Erie (Score and stats will be updated tonight)

High-A Wilmington

  • Game in progress versus Hub City (Score and stats will be updated tonight)

Low-A Fredericksburg

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