WASHINGTON -- Jake Irvin's scoreless six-inning outing against the Braves on Friday was bookended by frames that had different looks yet were just as impressive.
They resulted in the same zeros Irvin posted only 10 days ago in Atlanta.
For the second time in three starts, the right-hander shut out the Nats’ NL East opponents in commanding fashion. Irvin propelled the Nationals to a 2-1 win over the Braves with 96 pitches that yielded four hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
The 27-year-old in his second Major League season opened the night by retiring the first side with a strikeout against Michael Harris II and a pair of groundouts by Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna. Irvin stayed in control with a 1-2-3 second inning, and he did not allow a base runner until giving up a double to Braves No. 9 hitter J.P. Martínez with two outs in the third.
That first Braves hit led to a two-out, bases-loaded jam after Irvin issued back-to-back walks to Harris and Riley. Irvin evaded damage by inducing a groundout by Ozuna.
“He’s learned so much in a short period of time [about] how to stay in control in situations like that,” Martinez said. “High-leverage situations don’t seem to rattle him that much, don’t seem to bother him. He knows what he needs to do, and he worked really good. And that says a lot about [catcher Drew] Millas, too. Millas called a good game. I’m proud of these guys.”
The Nationals provided Irvin with run support in the fourth inning. CJ Abrams connected on the Nationals’ first hit off Chris Sale with a leadoff double. When Nick Senzel stole his first base of the season, Abrams took advantage of catcher Sean Murphy’s throwing miscue to second base and scored on the error. Ildemaro Vargas drove in Senzel with an RBI single.
“These divisional games are huge and games that you want to win,” Irvin said. “... Props to the offense for putting up two runs against a guy who’s a potential future Hall of Famer. I know that those guys are coming in and working diligently, and it showed tonight. Really cool.”
Irvin maintained that lead when he ran into traffic in the sixth inning. He allowed a leadoff single to Riley and then a double to Ozuna. With runners in scoring position, Irvin got Matt Olson to pop out to third base in foul territory, Ozzie Albies to ground out to him and Adam Duvall to fly out to left field.
With a zero still on the board for the Braves, Irvin walked off the field pumping his fists, having held Atlanta scoreless again.
"We had a hard time,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That kid threw good against us the last time we faced him. He has a good arm and we just couldn't bunch anything together and we couldn't get a productive out."
In his last four starts, dating back to May 22 against his hometown Twins, Irvin has accumulated a 1.48 ERA. During that stretch, he has recorded 26 strikeouts, allowed five walks and held opponents to a .186 batting average.
“A lineup like that is a daunting task, and those guys are really good over there,” Irvin said of the Braves. “For me, it’s all about competing, just making really good pitches and keeping a high-level of pitches throughout all those innings. For me, it was changing speeds today. Me and [Millas] were working hard between innings, kind of what the plan was going to be, how we were going to attack these guys and I thought it all went pretty well.”
The Nationals evened the series at one game apiece after another strong outing by a young pitcher. On Thursday, rookie Mitchell Parker hurled seven innings with two runs, three hits and no walks allowed, as well as two strikeouts. Parker also earned the win over the Braves in Atlanta on May 27.
“I said it yesterday -- these guys, they come in and they can’t walk away from the strike zone,” Martinez said. “They’ve got to get after it, they’ve got to throw strikes and get ahead. Both of those guys did that.”