Washington Nationals news & notes: Jake Irvin & “one bad pitch”; Nats drop opener with A’s in extras, 2-1…

Notes and quotes from the Nats’ series opener with the A’s in Oakland Coliseum…

With two on and two out in the third inning of his outing against the Phillies last week in Nationals Park — after a two-out double by Trea Turner and an intentional walk to Bryce Harper — Jake Irvin got up 0-2 on J.T. Realmuto, but left the next pitch, a curve, up in the zone for Philadelphia’s catcher.

Realmuto hit it 390 feet to left-center for a three-run blast which accounted for 3 of 4 runs the 26-year-old starter gave up in what ended up being a six-inning start.

“The outing as a whole was really good,”Irvin told reporters, as quoted by MASN reporter Mark Zuckerman after Irvin’s second turn in the rotation this season.

“Just one really bad pitch, and that’s baseball.”

“He was one pitch away from having an unbelievable outing,” manager Davey Martinez said following the 5-2 loss.

Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images

“But I thought he threw the ball really well. He went six innings, 93 pitches, but he threw the ball really well, so we just got to keep him right there.”

“He was trying to bounce it, 0-2,” Martinez said of the one pitch in question.

“He didn’t quite get it there, but I told him, I said, ‘Overall, Jake you got to be proud of what you did. That’s not an easy lineup to go through and he went through those guys four times and did really well.

“So let’s build off of that one and understand if you want to bounce it, bounce it, make sure it hits the dirt.”

“He’s been really good. He really has,” Martinez said before Friday night’s game.

“As we always talk about it’s just [competing] and consistency. Not losing the strike zone. But he’s been throwing the ball really well.”

Irvin had another “one bad pitch” outing last night in the Oakland, holding the A’s to one run on one hit in six innings, giving up a solo home run, on a 2-1 cutter up in the zone, Lawrence Butler hit 445 ft to right-center for his first of the season and a 1-0 lead for the home team in the Coliseum.

Irvin held it there, retiring 11 of the final 13 Athletics’ batters he faced, with just two walks for the right-hander over his final 3+ innings on the mound.

He struck out five of the 21 batters he faced, and threw just 74 pitches in six innings, with a total of seven swinging and 14 called strikes overall.

That “one bad pitch” though?

“It was just right down the middle, man,” Irvin said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“He hit a bad pitch. It’s mistakes like that, that I’m trying to shore up.”

It was a 1-0 game in the A’s favor into the ninth, when Jesse Winker, who was 3 for 3 with a double to that point, homering to lead off the ninth (4 for 4, 2B (3), HR (1)).

It went to extra innings in the series opener, but Kyle Finnegan gave up a walk-off single in the tenth which scored the free runner, 2-1.