Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop 2 of 3 to Twins in D.C.; Jake Irvin puts together another solid start…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ 3-2 loss to the Twins on Wednesday…

TWO BAD PITCHES:

Jake Irvin left a first-pitch fastball up and in for Max Kepler in the top of the second, and a first-pitch curve up for Carlos Correa in the sixth, so it was not just a “one bad pitch” start type of outing, but a two-bad-pitches turn in the rotation for the 27-year-old, second-year starter.

Irvin got some help from his defense along the way, with a diving catch in right-center by Jacob Young, a leaping catch at the top of the wall in left by Jesse Winker, and one catch out in right field by a sliding Eddie Rosario, which helped the Nats’ starter along the way.

In 6 ¹⁄₃ IP, Irvin gave up five hits and the two runs on home runs, striking out six of 25 hitters he faced, with nine swinging strikes, six on his curveball, and 16 called strikes, nine of them on his curve, which he threw 42% of the time, up from a season-average of 30.5%, while he threw fewer four-seamers (21%, down from 37.2%) in the outing.

“Jake pitched really well. He really did. Kept us in the game,” manager Davey Martinez said in his post game press conference following a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins at home in D.C.

Irvin threw just 84 pitches in 6 ¹⁄₃ innings, as the Twins as a club were aggressive against the right-hander, swinging early and often in the third game of three in Nationals Park.

“They’ve been aggressive all series,” Irvin said of the outing overall. “They’ve been swinging like that all series. That’s kind of the identity of their team, you know, is they hit home runs.

“And when they hit home runs, they win games, and I think they look for their pitch, they look for it early, and it’s kind of what they’re trying to do is keyhole that first pitch.”

Irvin was fine with the Twins’ aggressive approach.

“I’m there to get deep and if they’re going to give me early outs, take the early outs,” he said. “There was a lot of really good defensive plays made today, which was really cool.

“JY, Eddie, CJ, Luis [García, Jr.], just making plays, Winker too, man, everybody. And those come on early pitches, so it keeps those guys engaged and I think that’s kind of just the attack plan there.”

“He did well,” Martinez added. “The home run to Kepler he just yanked it. Supposed to be away, he just yanked it, middle-down. Other than that I thought he pitched really well.”

“Two pitches. A couple solo bombs,” Irvin said in assessing his own start. “You hope that those don’t hurt us as much as they did, but overall attacked, threw strikes, and that’s my job.”

The home runs hurt because the Nationals’ hitters once again struggled with runners in scoring position in the loss, going 0 for 8 with six left on base in the one-run game, with one run scoring in the eighth in a two-on, one-out groundout by Keibert Ruiz, and a solo home run by Joey Meneses in the ninth accounting for the home team’s only runs of the game.

“We were 0 for 8 today with runners in scoring position. So, quite a few at-bats where we had a chance to drive in some runs, we couldn’t do it,” Martinez said.

“We’ve just got to work better at-bats. I mean, we do. We’ve got to put the ball in play some of those at-bats.”

“We got to do a better job — like I said, of — we get guys on base, we get traffic, we got to start knocking some runs in.”