ATLANTA -- It was an odd and somewhat bittersweet outing for Nationals starting pitcher Jake Irvin on Saturday.
In his 11th start of the season, the right-hander earned his second win of 2026 (2-4) as the Nationals’ pitching staff one-hit the Braves in a 2-0 win at Truist Park.
But Irvin had to take a bit of a roller-coaster ride to get that second win, which evened the weekend series against Atlanta.
Irvin worked around a walk in the first inning before the game was delayed for 41 minutes due to rain that began to fall in the middle of the second inning. Irvin stayed loose during the delay and resumed his start in the bottom of the second inning, and he did not give up a hit over five innings.
Despite working on a potential no-no, though, Irvin exited the game while warming up prior to the bottom of the sixth inning.
Irvin hadn’t allowed a hit over five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and one walk on 80 pitches (52 strikes) before leaving the field with Washington’s training staff as the Nationals had a 2-0 lead, thanks to solo home runs from Dylan Crews and Jorbit Vivas.
On a comebacker that was hit past Irvin to end the fifth, he reached for the ball while off-balance, then he grimaced and shook his head as he walked off the mound.
Though the Nationals haven't, as of Saturday evening, provided specifics about the injury, Irvin will undergo an MRI on Sunday. Irvin described the injury as back tightness, but he said he doesn’t have a high level of concern about it.
“It was just precautionary,” Irvin said. “[It was] a little bit of tightness and we’ll see what the doctor says. ... Tightness is the best way to describe it.”
Irvin felt the tightness in the fifth inning, but he wanted to go back out and attempt to pitch the sixth. He threw one warmup pitch before walking off the field with trainers.
“I wanted to go out there and take that ball,” Irvin said. “I tried to give it a chance, [but] it just felt like it was in our best interest to go to a fresher arm.”
Manager Blake Butera said he hadn’t planned on pulling Irvin after the fifth inning despite 80 pitches and the rain delay.
“He said he felt a little something in his shoulder when he came in after the fifth,” Butera said of Irvin. “He wanted to see if it went away. He said he’d experienced something similar previously. I gave him the half-inning. When he went back out there for the first pitch of warmups, he said he felt something. He’ll get some imaging [Sunday].”
Prior to the injury, Irvin put together a start of five or more scoreless innings for the second time this season.
“We had a really good game plan going in,” Irvin said. “[Catcher] Keibert Ruiz called a great game, and I think we did a really good job keeping guys off-balance.”
“The velocity from the start and to contain that throughout the outing -- especially with the rain delay there -- I thought his stuff was outstanding,” Butera said.
A rain delay and Irvin's shortened start could have been a worst-case scenario for a Nationals squad that used six relievers in Friday’s 5-4 loss in 11 innings. Irvin’s perseverance paid dividends despite the injury.
“I just stayed mentally locked in [during the rain delay],” Irvin said. “I think that’s kind of the biggest thing during those things. Don’t check out. Don’t allow yourself to think that it might be the end of the road or the rain might persist longer. Just stay locked in. I threw a few balls in the tunnel to keep the body moving.”
Irvin said it was “impossible to say” whether or not the delay had an effect on his injury.
Brad Lord came on in relief of Irvin and pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, but Michael Harris II’s seventh-inning single broke up the potential combined no-hitter. The single was all Lord allowed, though, as he pitched three scoreless innings and struck out three.
“That’s Brad Lord. He’s phenomenal,” Irvin said. “Whenever we pass the ball off to him, we have all the faith in the world because he’s a dog. I’m proud of him. He competed his butt off.”
It was Washington’s longest no-hit bid since Sept. 21, 2024, when MacKenzie Gore tallied 6 1/3 no-hit innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Richard Lovelady, who opened Friday’s game with an inning pitched before he gave way to Miles Mikolas, earned his fourth save of the season.