When Jake Irvin walked off the mound Friday night — eyes straight ahead, a few fans clapping lightly behind the Nationals’ dugout — he left behind the worst start of his young career, long before Washington made things more interesting than expected. Irvin didn’t finish the third, with the Detroit Tigers tagging him for five hits and six runs, four of them earned.
Washington
Rookie Jake Irvin struggles, and Nats’ late rally falls short vs. Tigers
He didn’t help his case by issuing four walks. His defense didn’t help much, either.
The result, an 8-6 win for the Tigers, was the Nationals’ fourth straight loss. Their offense heated late against Tigers starter Matthew Boyd, who entered with a 6.47 ERA and didn’t allow a hit until the sixth. Irvin, on the other hand, yielded a leadoff homer to Zach McKinstry and a three-run shot to Akil Baddoo in the third. His curveball, his go-to pitch, induced one whiff on seven swings. He never found a groove, putting the Nationals (18-27) in a hole they couldn’t climb out of despite three runs in the sixth and seventh.
“Just making worse pitches,” Irvin said of how Friday was different from his first three starts. “It was one of those days where off-speed is not landing as often and it’s disappointing. … I wanted to set a tone.
Ahead of the series opener, Manager Dave Martinez provided a list of injury updates: Center fielder Victor Robles (back spasms) is progressing slowly. Left-handed reliever Sean Doolittle (elbow surgery) continues to pitch every other day in West Palm Beach, Fla., and could do so on back-to-back days in the near future. Reliever Victor Arano (shoulder strain) had a setback during a recent bullpen session and will soon undergo another MRI exam. And starter Chad Kuhl (right foot metatarsalgia) is close to returning, whether that means a minor league rehab assignment or immediately rejoining the Nationals’ staff.
Kuhl threw 65 pitches in four simulated innings at the start of the week. But asked Friday whether Kuhl will start again when healthy, Martinez was noncommittal. Kuhl posted a 9.41 ERA in 22 innings across his first five appearances. He often struggled with his command, walking 15 percent of the batters he faced (the major league average this year is 8.8). So when Irvin took his spot in the rotation May 3, it felt like a giant breath of fresh air for Washington.
Irvin was more effective and could be more easily projected in the Nationals’ long-term plans. It feels logical, then, to eventually move Kuhl to the bullpen — slotting him as a third long man next to Erasmo Ramírez and Thaddeus Ward — and give Irvin an extended look, no matter what happened against the Tigers. But there is at least one counterpoint.
In 2022, Irvin’s first season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, he reached 80 pitches in just five of his 24 minor league outings. Before he was promoted this spring, he topped out at 82 pitches with the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings. Since Irvin arrived in Washington, Martinez has repeatedly vowed to carefully manage his innings, hammering that he is not far removed from a major elbow procedure. That’s easier to do in Rochester than in the majors, even if there’s merit to feeding Irvin chances to build on what he has done well up here. And he has done a good bit well.
“We definitely have to keep an eye on him,” Martinez said. “When he’s like that, I told [pitching coach Jim] Hickey that when he gets to 75 pitches, that’s enough.”
Only 38 of those 75 pitches were strikes. Irvin started and ended the outing with a total lack of command. He issued a four-pitch walk in the first and third. He faced eight batters in all, 11 of whom reached base via hit, walk or error, five of whom reached base in the first alone.
Irvin’s first-inning error came right after McKinstry smacked his solo homer to left-center. Luis García’s error in the third, the second baseman’s first of the season, came when he threw way wide of Dominic Smith, failing to turn an inning-ending double play. Instead, Irvin threw 18 more pitches — including the change-up Baddoo launched for his homer — and didn’t make it out of the frame. And as far as defense went, Keibert Ruiz wasn’t particularly sharp for Irvin behind the plate.
“From the first batter, the home run, he had the guy struck out,” Martinez said of Irvin, implying his final line was misleading because of a missed call in that matchup with McKinstry and the shoddy defense. “I mean, I don’t like … but that ball is pretty much right down the middle of the plate. He gives up a home run, and he could have gotten out of that inning with just one run. A ball back to him, and he just couldn’t make the play. And then the double play ball [to García], that cost him another three runs. That’s a difference in the ballgame.”
By sharp contrast to Irvin, Boyd faced the minimum on 34 pitches through the first three innings. Hobie Harris, the first to relieve Irvin, recorded seven outs and was solid aside from Matt Vierling’s solo homer to right. Ward, who relieved Harris to start the sixth, was greeted by Riley Greene’s solo homer to right. Both blasts were relevant once the Nationals stormed back.
Boyd carried a no-hit bid to the sixth, facing the minimum 15 hitters through five. Then Ruiz connected with an outside change-up that Vierling couldn’t snare while sprinting in. Two batters later, CJ Abrams hit a double to the right corner. A batter after that, Lane Thomas went deep for his sixth homer of May.
The Nationals had life. Before the inning was out, Joey Meneses chased Boyd with a ground-rule double that bounced off the warning track in left. They scored three more times in the seventh, their rally capped by Ruiz’s two-run homer into Washington’s bullpen. But they were already buried deep by Irvin’s rough start, making those late sparks little more than a good sign for Saturday.