ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jake Irvin’s name may not have been mentioned as a potential National League All-Star because he was never expected to be. He had a 4.61 ERA as a rookie last season, slotting loosely into the back of the Washington Nationals‘ rotation this year. Nothing was guaranteed.
Maybe it’s because he’s not as famous as a seasoned veteran or a highly touted prospect. After all, he was a fourth-round pick in 2018 who debuted last season only because of an injury. But after six innings Saturday in which he allowed just one hit and one run, leading the Nationals to an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, Irvin is still making the case that he should be in the all-star mix.
But don’t ask him if he should be.
—I’m not going to answer that, no —he said laughing.
But here’s an argument for him being in the Mid-Summer Classic after the Nationals snapped a four-game losing streak: Irvin lowered his ERA to 3.03 after 17 starts, good for eighth in the National League. He ranks just below Sonny Gray of the St. Louis Cardinals and just above Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants, all of whom are certainly in the All-Star mix. He has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 13 starts. He ranks among the top 13 in the National League in walks and hits per inning pitched (1.06, eighth) and opponent batting average (.224, tied for 13th).
“I think a lot of our guys should be stars, but I hope he gets the opportunity to do it,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He’s definitely done well. He has kept us going in every game and he has been phenomenal.”
Since last year’s All-Star break, Irvin has been the Nationals’ most consistent pitcher. And this season, he has taken his game to another level, transforming himself from a rotation hopeful to a rotation mainstay. And perhaps the most notable part of Irvin’s impressive performance Saturday is that he didn’t have great command of his best secondary pitch early.
In 24 starts in 2023, he’s thrown his curveball as a strike 58.7 percent of the time, according to the TruMedia website. This season, he’s raised that mark to 66.3 percent. Hitters are hitting just .196 against it.
But Irvin said Tropicana Field has one of the steepest mounds in the majors. And after impressing Sunday at the Colorado Rockies‘ Coors Field, which has one of the lowest mounds in the majors, his curveball wasn’t breaking Saturday like it usually does. He was driving his curveball into the left-handed pitcher’s batter’s box in the first two innings.
After the first, pitching strategist Sean Doolittle told Irvin that the shape of his curveball was different than normal; Martinez said it was breaking more like a sweeper. Irvin quickly made an adjustment.
“I try not to let the mound come into play,” he said. “But when it does happen, just try to make that adjustment and try to do it on as few pitches as possible.”
Irvin took a 1-0 lead thanks to CJ Abrams, who hit his third home run of the season to lead off the game. In the bottom half, Brandon Lowe hit a fly ball in foul territory that catcher Keibert Ruiz accommodated. But the ball fell on a catwalk and never became a foul ball. On the next pitch, Lowe hit a solo home run that tied the score.
That was the only hit Irvin allowed. He continued to attack with his curveball: 44 of his 96 pitches were curveballs even though he threw them in the zone just 36 percent of the time. And although Irvin walked his batters three times, none of them made it past first base.
“Really good,” Ruiz said. “He was making pitches when we needed him to. His sinker was there. His curveball was really good. … I loved the way he threw it.”
Despite Irvin’s effectiveness, he is 6-6, yet another sign that a pitcher’s record often better represents his team’s performance than his own. In this case, the Nationals have struggled to provide run support. For most of this one, it looked like more of the same was in store.
Entering the seventh inning, the Nationals managed to lead only thanks to a smart baserunning play by Luis Garcia Jr., who scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to give them a 2-1 lead.
But in the seventh, after Jacob Young singled, Abrams nearly hit his second homer. Instead, the ball bounced off the left-field wall for a double that extended the Nationals’ lead. That change seemed to open the floodgates. The next six at-bats: Lane Thomas single, Jesse Winker RBI single, Joey Meneses lineout, Garcia RBI single, Harold Ramirez two-run triple and Ruiz RBI single. Just like that, the Nationals led 8-1 before the bullpen finished Irvin’s job.
“Everyone stayed in the middle of the field,” Martínez said. “We have to keep doing that: finding ways to score runs like that.”
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