PITTSBURGH — The Washington Nationals’ 9-4 loss Thursday in the first of a four-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates surfaced just about every hard truth the second half of the season has brought to bear: A young starter could not extricate himself from a big inning, a young defense behind him could not play mistake-free baseball, a young offense could not find a key hit to close the gap.
The young starter was Jake Irvin. A day after three Cubs pitchers combined to no-hit the Pirates, Pittsburgh’s offense got to the right-hander in a hurry, putting up five runs in the second after Washington’s three-run first. Irvin was tagged for six runs on seven hits and three walks by the time he was pulled after five innings. The Pirates scored once more in the third, then three in the sixth when the Nationals unraveled.
The Nationals did not score again until the ninth.
“The big innings stink, and they’re going to kill you,” Irvin said. “We’ve lost two games in a row that I’ve started because of those innings. We’re trying to do whatever we can to avoid those situations in the future.”
Of all the Nationals’ young starters, Irvin might be the least likely to suffer from big innings. At 27, the right-hander qualifies as one of the elder statesmen in the rotation, and his strength has been his command and a keen understanding of what frustrates hitters. But the Pirates’ big second was his second straight start stained by a one bad frame after the Cubs got to him for a seven-run inning in his previous start.
Irvin produced a sparkling first half of the season, garnering all-star buzz with a 2.80 ERA in his first 18 starts. A low walk and home run rate helped him keep up impressive peripherals that did not suggest regression was coming. But in the 11 starts that have followed, he has a 6.90 ERA. In those first 18 starts, opposing hitters had a .518 OPS against his curveball. Since then, it’s 1.028.
Irvin said the problem is less with his curveball and more with the harder offerings that make his off-speed stuff more effective.
“Done a really bad job of establishing the fastball,” Irvin said. “That’s something that keeps guys honest on off-speed pitches. Guys are getting good pitches to hit in good counts from me. I’ve got to be better about making better pitches deep in counts.”
The first six Pirates who reached base in the second inning did so on a curveball — three that were ruled ball four and three left over the plate for RBI singles from Yasmani Grandal, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan Reynolds. Irvin opted to look elsewhere for his put-away pitch once the bases were loaded, attacking Nick Gonzales with three pitches up in the zone. Gonzales, though, crushes pitches up. He got hold of the third, a sinker, and sent it into right field to score two more runs.
“He starts going to his breaking ball a lot when he gets into trouble,” Manager Dave Martinez said of Irvin. “It shouldn’t erase what he did in the first half. He should be conscious of finishing strong. Stay in the moment.”
Irvin was not alone in his struggles.
Had Dylan Crews caught a flyball that popped out of his glove in the second, Irvin gets a quicker second out. Had Irvin and Nasim Nuñez not failed to connect on a third-inning pickoff throw that sailed into center field, the sixth run charged to Irvin is less likely to come around. Had the Nationals made even one fewer mistake in the sixth, they would have at least remained within striking distance.
Instead, the Nationals intentionally walked Reynolds with two outs to load the bases. These events followed: a passed ball by Keibert Ruiz to score one run; Joe La Sorsa hit Oneil Cruz with a pitch to reload the bases, leading Martinez to pull La Sorsa for Eduardo Salazar; and Salazar walked two more batters (on nine pitches) to score two more runs for a 9-3 advantage.
The Nationals’ win probability before the intentional walk was 8 percent; after the inning, it was 2.4 percent.
“Those guys have to come in and throw strikes,” Martinez said.
In a rosier version of the Nationals’ future, their offense has more innings like the first, one in which power (an RBI double from Juan Yepez and two-run home run from Andrés Chaparro, providing a 3-0 lead) can help cover up for an absence of timely hitting. The absence of both proved too much for a young team to overcome.
“Baseball’s baseball,” Chaparro said. “We had a lot of base runners on today, and we were trying to drive them in. The results weren’t there. That’s just how the game goes.”
Notes: Righty Trevor Williams (right flexor strain) threw 59 pitches to live hitters before Thursday’s game and, if he feels good Friday, could soon begin a rehab assignment with either Class AA Harrisburg or Class AAA Rochester, Martinez said. Once he gets to about 80 pitches and feels good, the Nationals could expand to a six-man rotation for the final week or two of the season, using Williams as the sixth starter. ...
Martinez sat CJ Abrams on Thursday, giving him a day off because of the 23-year-old’s recent struggles. In his place, Nuñez went 2 for 4 and collected his first career double.
