New-look lineup produces same results in loss (updated)

SAN FRANCISCO – They tried a new look atop the lineup, flip-flopping James Wood and CJ Abrams and giving Brady House the first opportunity of his career to bat in a prominent position. Anything in an attempt to shake things up and bring some life back to a lifeless Nationals lineup.

Alas, the end result looked very much like the results of previous games when Abrams batted ahead of Wood and House batted down in the order.

At some point, it’s not about the order of the lineup, it’s about the production (or lack thereof) of the guys who are in the lineup. And there once again was very little production tonight during a 5-0 loss to the Giants.

Shut out for the second straight day, the Nationals brought their offensive woes with them from the East Coast to the West Coast. They couldn’t score off Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez on Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park. And they couldn’t score off Giants opener Matt Gage or bulk reliever Kai-Wei Teng tonight at Oracle Park.

Even in victory Wednesday night, the Nats scored only twice (one of them Abrams’ walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth). Ergo, they’ve now totaled two runs on 11 hits over their last 27 innings of baseball. Perhaps even more jarring than that, they’ve drawn only two walks during that same prolonged time frame.

"You have to be aggressive in the strike zone," interim manager Miguel Cairo said. "But if you're aggressive in the strike zone, they're not going to throw you strikes. So that means they're going to throw out of the strike zone, and now you're in control of what you're going to do. You cannot allow the pitcher to dictate what you're going to do as a hitter. It's your at-bat. You've got to be in control of what you want to do. He's got to come to you, not you to him."

Such is life for a lineup full of young guys who Cairo admits are probably trying too hard right now to atone for their woes and make it all up in one fell swoop. It’s not working.

"I think you always press when things aren't going the team's way, or your way," center fielder Jacob Young said. "You want to be the guy that breaks the team out of it, that kind of sparks the run we know we can go on. Sometimes, it just doesn't go your way. You've got to keep with your process, whatever that process is for you, and trust that it's going to work out more than it doesn't."

Tonight’s game saw the Nationals threaten to score only twice in the game. Wood, batting leadoff for the first time since April 24, led off the fourth with a double high off the right field wall but was stranded at second base by his teammates. One inning later, they loaded the bases with no outs against Teng, only to fail to score when José Tena (a late replacement when Luis García Jr. was scratched with back tightness) grounded into a force out on a first pitch sinker below the zone and Young grounded into a double play on an 0-1 curveball at the knees.

"I don't think it was a bad pitch to hit," Young said. "I just kind of smothered it and hit it right at the shortstop. You've got to get the ball in the air there. You can't hit the ball on the ground."

"With men on base, we've got to do the little things to win ballgames. Simple as that," Cairo said. "We got bases loaded, no outs. Ground ball. Ground ball. That's at least two or three runs right there. We've got to do the little things."

García, by the way, won't be in Saturday afternoon's lineup, Cairo said, giving the second baseman more time to let his back heal before he returns to action.

With zero run support from his teammates tonight, Jake Irvin had to be perfect. The right-hander was far from it, digging a hole for his team to contend with from the outset.

Irvin’s first inning woes are no secret. He’s been dealing with them for most of the season, and the issue was at the forefront again in his last outing, with the Brewers jumping out to a 3-0 lead against him before his teammates even came up to bat. So when it happened again tonight, it wasn’t surprising but it was frustrating.

After a drive to the warning track in right-center by leadoff man Heliot Ramos, Irvin proceeded to surrender four straight hits, the first of them causing the most damage. Rafael Devers mashed a 2-1 fastball from Irvin some 427 feet to right-center, clearing the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark for a 1-0 lead.

Three subsequent singles made it 2-0 and left Irvin with a gaudy 9.75 first inning ERA on the season.

"The first-inning troubles feel pretty hilarious at this point," he said. "An infield hit, a bleeder to center field ... it just feels right. But you just keep making pitches, dial in and do what you can to keep your team in the game."

As he usually does, Irvin settled down after that, going so far as to strike out the side in a quick bottom of the second. He did have to pitch his way out of a couple of jams, stranding runners on second and third in the third, then another runner on third in the fourth. He completed the fifth on 91 pitches, those two early runs still the only ones on the board, so he was given the chance to return for the sixth.

Irvin should have had two down and nobody on base, but Nathaniel Lowe couldn’t handle Jung Hoo Lee’s grounder to first and turned it into a two-base error. Irvin then hung his next pitch – a first-pitch curveball – to Casey Schmitt and watched as the ball went soaring to left field for a killer, two-run homer and the end of his night.

Even with that final blast, Irvin still finds himself the owner of a respectable 3.86 ERA in everything other than the first inning this season. Baseball doesn’t work like that, of course. Every inning counts the same, so Irvin has to live with his current 4.90 ERA.

And he and his teammates have to live with the harsh reality of what this 2025 season has become, a nightly slog in which whoever takes the ball hopes to be the one to lead the way but understands it's not so simple.

"It's tough," Irvin said. "You want to be perfect. You want to try and do everything you can to help the team win, just to pick up the boys. We're all in this together, and there's a lot of love in this locker room. It does feel like the burden falls on you every so often. At the end of the day, you just keep going, try to be a good teammate, pick the boys up and just be fearless every time you take the field."