BALTIMORE – Rarely have the Nationals had the opportunity to beat a team when it’s down. And given his close friendship with now former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, Davey Martinez probably took little pleasure in rubbing salt in Baltimore’s wounds this afternoon.
But there was a game to play regardless, and the Nats made the most of the opportunity presented to them, bursting out of the gates to score six quick runs in the top of the first, take a big lead early and cruise to a 10-6 victory at Camden Yards that only looked moderately close because of a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth against Zach Brzykcy.
Behind their first big offensive showing against an opposing starter in more than a week, and behind a no-nonsense start from Jake Irvin, the Nationals enjoyed a rare lopsided win and put themselves in position to try to sweep the struggling Orioles in Sunday’s series finale.
The lone negative development on this 84-degree late afternoon? Jacob Young appeared to injure his left shoulder slamming into the center field wall trying to make a difficult catch in the bottom of the seventh and had to depart the game.
Young, who was down on the ground in obvious pain for several minutes, managed to get onto his feet and walked back to the dugout alongside Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard, surely headed for imaging on his shoulder to determine the extent of the injury.
It had been a while since the Nationals scored any early runs, let alone this many at once. They entered the day having failed to produce more than two runs against any of the last eight opposing starters they faced, despite that list of opponents bearing few names that make hitters quake in their boots.
Kyle Gibson, though, entered the day with a 13.11 ERA in three starts to begin his delayed season, having already suffered the indignity of one disastrous top of the first in his April 29 debut against the Yankees. If ever there was a matchup favoring the Nats’ chances for early offense, this was it.
And sure enough, they took full advantage. CJ Abrams led the game off with a hustle double to right, then scampered to third on a wild pitch. James Wood quickly drove him in with an opposite field single for a 1-0 lead that left the Baltimore crowd murmuring.
After Nathaniel Lowe drew a walk, Keibert Ruiz swung at a changeup at least a foot outside the strike zone, yet still managed to make solid contact and drive the ball to center field. Cedric Mullins, after initially taking a step in, tried to recover in vain, the ball sailing over his head for an easy RBI double that elicited vociferous boos from the home crowd.
The boos continued when Luis García Jr. ripped a two-run single to right, then again when Josh Bell sent a 104-mph laser to right for a single, becoming the sixth straight Nationals batter to reach base to begin the game. By the time Young tripled to right, they had batted around, scoring six runs and forcing interim manager Tony Mansolino to make the long, slow walk to the mound to take the ball from his starter, who departed with a 16.78 ERA and another chorus of boos.
The Nats would add another run in the top of the second on García’s double, giving him three RBIs in two innings, before Charlie Morton settled down and kept them scoreless through the rest of his long relief outing.
Staked to a 7-0 lead, Irvin was afforded a rare opportunity to go right after opposing hitters with no fear of giving it all back on one swing. And that’s exactly how he approached his outing, throwing 67 of his 98 pitches for strikes and issuing only one walk during his 6 1/3 innings strong innings of work.
After a concerning stretch that saw him strike out three total batters over his last three starts, Irvin rediscovered his swing-and-miss stuff, recording six strikeouts, only one of them looking.
By the time he completed the sixth, Irvin still saw a zero in the Orioles’ run column, and only 82 pitches on his register. With the seven-run lead still in hand, there was no reason to pull him now, so he took the mound for the bottom of the seventh, at which point he finally stumbled for the first time all day.
A leadoff double by Adley Rutschman put Irvin in the stretch. An RBI single by Ramón Urías accounted for the game’s first run off him. And when Ramón Laureano drilled an RBI double off the center field wall – and once Young was tended to and ultimately helped off the field following his injury trying to make the play – Irvin’s day was finally done. Jose A. Ferrer stranded a pair of runners in scoring position, and the Nationals took a 7-2 lead into the eighth, with Irvin in good shape to earn his third win of the season.