Jake Irvin spins a gem as Washington Nationals stay hot

Jake Irvin delivered his best start of the season and led the Nationals to victory

Jake Irvin delivered one of the best starts of his career this afternoon against the Giants. Besides his electric July 4th outing last year, this was the best start of his career. Irvin went 8 scoreless innings, striking out seven, walking two and allowed just three hits.

He did a great job limiting hard contact today. In fact, the Giants didn’t hit any balls over 100 MPH this afternoon. All season, Irvin’s velocity has been a talking point. It has been down over a tick. While he had a little bit more heat early on, even touching 96, Irvin settled in around 92 MPH.

That was more than good enough. Irvin mixed up his four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup beautifully. Early in the game, he was getting a lot of outs with the heater. Then he turned to that changeup to get some swings and misses in the middle innings. Later in the game, Irvin was using his curveball to set up his fastball.

He dumped in curveballs early in the count and then sped hitters up, making his 92 look more like 96 MPH. Jake Irvin was pumping strikes and when he wasn’t getting punch outs, he was getting a lot of quick outs. That was on full display in the 7th, when he had a four pitch inning.

In that 8th inning, Irvin began to fatigue a bit, but the crowd got his back and helped push him to the finish line. The crowd was very engaged, especially in those last couple innings, sensing how special of a start this was for Irvin. There was a real pop in the crowd as Irvin got his seventh strikeout to finish his outing and he pumped his fist.

The Nationals offense did not do anything spectacular, but they did enough to win the game. Their efforts were spearheaded by James Wood in the bottom of the first inning. After an Amed Rosario double, Wood smacked a Kyle Harrison slurve into the right field bullpen for his 13th home run of the game.

After hitting a lot of his April home runs the other way, we have been seeing more pull side homers from Wood lately. In his first full season, James Wood is now hitting .284 with a .923 OPS. It is truly remarkable what we are seeing from this 22 year old phenom.

After that, the offense was quiet for a while. They got hits here and there, but never managed to get anyone home. That was until the bottom of the 7th when the bottom of the lineup put together a rally.

Luis Garcia Jr. and Daylen Lile hit back to back singles with one out. Then Robert Hassell hit a tapper just far enough to get Garcia in from third. It was not pretty, but it was a vital insurance run.

Daylen Lile really impressed me this afternoon. While he only got one hit, he looked so comfortable at the plate. He has such a simple, smooth swing and he has yet to look fooled at the MLB level. Lile also made a nice catch to end the game. He got a late read, but used his speed to make a great diving catch.

Kyle Finnegan had shoulder soreness, so Jorge Lopez got the ninth and looked very good. His stuff looks much improved from his tough April and he is beginning to become a reliable high leverage arm again.

The Washington Nationals have now won six of their last seven and seven of their last nine games. Today, it was their pitching that got it done, shutting out the Giants. Other games it has been the offense. It is nice to see this team win in a variety of ways. They will have the chance to win another series tomorrow as Michael Soroka takes on Robbie Ray. This Nationals team is fun, and today was just another example of that.