Alvarez, Marlins don't believe his arm stiffness is serious

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Henderson Alvarez and the Marlins seem to think his stiff throwing arm, which caused him to exit Wednesday's 8-5 10-inning win over the Nationals after just five innings, isn't a serious injury.

“My arm was tight, a little tight,” Alvarez explained after the game as he and teammates were huddled by TVs watching the end of the Heat-Pacers playoff game. “From the time I went out to the mound, from the beginning I felt it… [but] I’ll be fine for the next start.”

Alvarez didn’t refer to his discomfort as an elbow injury. He said he felt tightness all over his arm, something he’s felt in previous starts including before this when the team was on its 11-game West Coast trip. He said he felt it when he pitched in San Diego.

Elbow injuries have hurt the Marlins plenty already.

Jose Fernandez, the staff ace, was lost to season-ending Tommy John surgery two weeks ago after going on the disabled list with a right elbow sprain.

Reliever Carter Capps followed Fernandez to the disabled list on Tuesday with the same right elbow sprain injury. The Marlins said they're going to give Capps at least a month off hoping his elbow injury heals with rest.

Alvarez's prognosis remains to be seen. But if there’s a positive sign for Miami aside from what Alvarez said after the game it’s that his velocity didn't seem to take a hit Wednesday. He was still registering fastballs between 93 and 94 miles per hour in the fifth inning and throwing curveballs for strikes.

“I think he’s fine,” manager Mike Redmond said. “But we’ll see over the next couple days.  He wanted to keep pitching. But we wanted to make sure it didn’t become anything serious. He just had mentioned that it had tightened up on him. We just took him out to make sure it didn’t turn into anything.”

DIETRICH CATCH PLAY OF THE GAME IN REDMOND'S EYES

There were a lot of big plays and moment's in Wednesday's win, but Derek Dietrich's catch, backing up an errant throw by pitcher Mike Dunn in the eighth inning to keep the bases loaded is a play both Redmond and a few other Marlins mentioned.

"There was a lot of stuff. I don’t even inow where to start in that game," Redmond said. "Really the play of the game for me was Dietrich backing up the play with the bases loaded. That ended up being a huge play. If that ball gets down that right field line its game over for us.

Said Dunn: "Right as I let it go, I went, 'Oh, no,' Then I was like, 'It's going right to him.' Yes!"

Dunn of course worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the eighth to keep the score tied at 4.

"Bear down, that's pretty much the extent of it," Dunn said. "I had nowhere to put anybody. You've got to get them out. [Anthony] Rendon was a big out, to be able to punch him out. It took 10 pitches to get there, and he made some good swings on some pitches, just foul. I was able to finally get a good slider to him to get him out.

"[Jayson] Werth is the one guy who has had really good success against me. Nowhere to put him, you've got to go right at him, and locate your pitches. I got him to pop up to the infield. I was like, 'Ok, breath.' But at the same time, there were two outs. You've got to make the third out.

"The pitch I threw I threw to get [Adam LaRoche] to ground out wasn't a very good pitch, it was a pitch right down the middle, but I was able to get the job done."