Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop 4-2 decision to Red Sox; Jake Irvin solid again…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ 4-2 loss to the Red Sox in Fenway on Saturday…

Some shaky defense on a damp infield led, in part, to four unearned runs scoring in the first inning of Jake Irvin’s May 4th outing at home in the nation’s capital, but Irvin put that rough start (a 35-pitch frame in the end) behind him and went on to toss four scoreless innings (on 62 pitches) in a 6-3 loss to Toronto.

[Jake] threw the ball really well,” manager Davey Martinez said after a 107-pitch turn in the rotation for Irvin, who was up to an average of 88+ pitches over seven outings on the year following the start.

“He should have had a couple of double plays there,” in the first, Martinez added. “We could have got out of that first inning maybe with just one run, just couldn’t play defense behind him. He was good all day. He gave us five good innings.

“After that first inning he didn’t give up any runs.”

“Just trying to get as deep as possible after something like that,” Irvin said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, of the recovering well from the rough first.

Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images

“Keep us in the game and just give us a chance to win moving inning-by-inning.”

It’s the competitive nature of the game,” he explained of staying focused in spite of what went wrong behind him.

“Got to keep us in the ballgame and got to make sure that I do my part to give us a chance to win the game.”

Irvin did his part again on Saturday’s start against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway, in a seven-inning, four-hit, two-run start for the Nationals, in which he struck of six of the 26 batters he faced, with 18 swinging strikes (nine on his fastball, seven on his curve), and 12 called strikes (with five each on his fastball and curve) in a 103-pitch effort.

Irvin’s teammates Joey Meneses and Eddie Rosario hit one each out to left field in Fenway Park, over the Green Monster, though Rosario’s had to be confirmed by review, and Wilyer Abreu (solo homer) and Jarren Duran (RBI double) scored the Sox’ runs off Irvin over seven strong for a 2-2 tie.

Robert Garcia came on for the Nationals in the eighth, and gave up a one-out single by Rob Refsnyder. Romy Gonzalez reached on a throwing error by CJ Abrams on a force play, when Abrams stepped on the bag himself, but threw high to first base, allowing Gonzalez to take second base instead. Garcia walked Tyler O’Neill intentionally, to set up a lefty vs lefty battle against Rafael Devers, who doubled to left off the Nats’ southpaw to drive in two runs in the Red Sox’ 4-2 win.

“Right then and there,” Martinez said after the loss, “I thought the way that Robert has been throwing the ball, we’d get away with facing Devers. It didn’t work out.”

He had Hunter Harvey warming at the time, but with an eye on having him face right-hander Vaughn Grissom, if necessary. Did he think of going to Harvey vs Devers?

“Nope, he was gonna face Grissom if the bases were loaded.”

“Tied ballgame,” Martinez explained, “so I thought that was the right matchup. It was a good battle up there. He fouled a couple of good, tough pitches off and Rafi just got the best of him today. But Garcia is throwing the ball good. He’s our left-handed guy, so we decided to go that route. It didn’t work out today, but I think I’d do it again tomorrow in a tie ballgame.”

Irvin was strong though seven, but with 103 pitches on his arm, the manager decided to go to the bullpen.

“We thought it’d be a good time to get him through about 100 pitches. He was throwing the ball really well. And he did — he finished up really strong, threw the ball really, really well today. Real proud of him. He attacked the strike zone, and really gave us the innings that we needed.

“Just trying to get deep in the game. Save the ‘pen a little bit,” Irvin said, as quoted by MASN writer Bobby Blanco, of giving his club the seven innings he did.

“We got a really long road trip ahead and I know that a lot of those guys have thrown quite a bit this year.

“So I’m trying to do what I can to save those guys’ arms a little bit and get as deep into the ballgame as possible.”

“Our bullpen has been used a lot,” Martinez said. “So for him to go out there and give us those seven innings was huge.”