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PHILADELPHIA – Three-fifths of the Nationals rotation is giving them a chance to win right now. The other two-fifths is not, and that has become a real problem.
While MacKenzie Gore, Brad Lord and Cade Cavalli have offered the organization legitimate reason for short-term and long-term encouragement with their pitching performances, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker haven’t come close to matching their teammates’ numbers. It would be one thing if those two were at least gutting out five or six innings and keeping the score close, but even that has become a challenge.
It happened to Parker during Saturday night’s loss to the Phillies. And it happened to Irvin this afternoon during a 3-2 loss to the National League East leaders.
It certainly didn’t help matters that the Nats lineup was rendered helpless by Philadelphia left-hander Ranger Suárez, who struck out a career-high 11 batters over seven scoreless innings. But Irvin’s inability to complete even three innings made it feel like this game was much more one-sided than it actually was.
This is the recurring theme for the Nationals at this stage of the season. Over the last 2 1/2 weeks, they’ve gone 7-2 in games started by Gore, Lord and Cavalli while going 1-7 in games started by Irvin and Parker.
"Tomorrow's a new day," Irvin said. "You wake up, you just have to keep working. That's what it's all about. Stay in the process, get ready to prep for the Rays (this weekend) and support these boys when we're out in New York (the next three days).
To their credit, the Nats still managed to keep this one within reach. They did so with 5 2/3 scoreless relief innings from Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Jackson Rutledge, Konnor Pilkington and Clayton Beeter to keep the deficit at 3-0 after seven.
And with Suárez pulled after that, the Nationals at least gave themselves a chance against a Phillies bullpen missing closer Jhoan Duran and top lefty Matt Strahm (who each pitched the previous two nights). They loaded the bases in the eighth against José Alvarado, forcing another pitching change from manager Rob Thomson. But James Wood and CJ Abrams collectively drove in only one run, and that came via a 4-6-3 double play, Wood’s only batted-ball out of the series. (His other seven outs all came on strikeouts.)
Orion Kerkering wound up serving as the fill-in closer and gave up a one-out homer to Luis García Jr., trimming the deficit to one run. Kerkering, though, settled down after that and retired Josh Bell and Dylan Crews to end the game.
"We could've done a better job of scrapping together better at-bats," Wood said. "Maybe just being more selective."
Given the offensive woes, it may not have mattered much how Irvin pitched today. Nevertheless, the last thing the Nationals or the right-hander needed was another dud, certainly not one this short.
Even though he made it through the bottom of the first unscathed, Irvin still had to work for it. He totaled 23 pitches to four batters during an inning that included an Abrams throwing error, a Kyle Schwarber drive to the warning track and a Jacob Young diving catch of Bryce Harper’s line drive to center.
The second inning wasn’t nearly as kind to Irvin. Unable to put away hitters, he found himself facing a two-on, two-out jam, the Phillies’ No. 9 hitter stepping to the plate. With the big boys due up next, there was plenty of motivation to retire backup catcher Rafael Marchán, which proved more difficult than expected. Marchán ripped a two-run double to right-center, not only giving his team a 2-0 lead but extending the inning in the process.
By the time the bottom of the second finally ended, Irvin had avoided any more runs on the board. But his pitch count stood at 54, giving him little chance of making it deep in this start.
Sure enough, he didn’t even make it out of the bottom of the third. With two on and one out, Irvin got a mound visit from Jim Hickey. And when he proceeded to walk the next batter on four pitches, he got a mound visit from Miguel Cairo, ending his afternoon. At 2 1/3 innings, it was the shortest start of Irvin’s career, and it continued a downward trend that has extended for months now.
"It's frustrating, for sure," he said. "That's something I want to do, to be able to get as deep into the game as possible. At that time, you're just pushing for the guys in the 'pen to come out and do their thing. And they did a great job to pick me up."
In five August starts, Irvin has a 9.55 ERA. Go back to late April, a span of 21 starts, and his ERA is 6.13. Like Parker (7.48 over his last 21 starts), he’s not consistently giving his team a chance, a growing problem.
"It's a work in progress," Cairo said of Irvin. "We've got to figure out how we're going to help him. He's a competitor. He just didn't have his good stuff today."
At the plate, the Nationals barely put up a fight today against Suárez, who averaged 10 pitches per inning over a lengthy stretch of this game and finished with only 90 total pitches thrown across seven dominant innings.
Only three batters reached base against Suárez, with Young doubling in the third and singling in the sixth, and Riley Adams (batting third for the first time in his career) singling in the seventh. Nobody drew a walk. Everyone but Adams and Young struck out at least once against the lefty, who used his entire six-pitch repertoire to keep them off balance.
"I think he just threw more strikes than maybe we expected," Young said of Suárez, who threw 65 of his 90 pitches for strikes. "He located well, obviously. He had each pitch. I think we thought he was going to leave a few more things out than he did. He pitched well. We had a couple chances, though. Our pitchers kept us in the game. We had a couple chances to come back and win the game, and that's all you can really ask for."
