Notes and quotes on Jake Irvin and the Nats’ game in Citi Field last night…
IRVIN VS NYM ROUND 2:
Going up against the Mets on July 4th in the nation’s capital, Jake Irvin went eight innings on 99 pitches, giving up just one hit and one walk in the scoreless outing, which saw him strike out eight of the 26 hitters he faced in a 1-0 win.
Irvin collected 15 swinging strikes (seven of them with his curveball, six on his 4-seamer, and two on his sinker), and 23 called strikes (13 on his curve, four on his fastball, six called strikes on his sinker), dominating his opponent.
“That was unbelievable, it really was,” Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said after the 11:05 AM holiday game.
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
“He was good all day. Mixed his pitches up really well. But kept those guys off-balance. His fastball was really good today.”
Irvin said his ability to go deep in the start was a result of attacking hitters throughout all eight innings on the mound.
“Just stay in attack mode and control what I can control,” he explained.
“At the end of the day, I’m out there making pitches, trying to attack that lineup.”
His manager said it was another step in the 27-year-old, 2018 4th round pick’s development.
“He understands who he is and what he needs to do,” Martinez said. “The biggest thing was he’s gaining confidence every time he goes out there. He understands how to pitch. That’s the biggest thing. I can talk to him, we can sit there and he’ll tell me things like, ‘I’m not really feeling my two-seamer, I’m going to throw more four-seamers. I’m not feeling my curveball, we’re going to throw the changeup,’ and vice versa. So, he knows himself really well, and he has conversations with the catchers, and he just attacks hitters, he attacks hitters, which is awesome.”
Going up against the Mets in back-to-back turns in the rotation, is always a challenge.
“He’s just got to focus on what he does really well, and hopefully he gets through it. For me it’s those first couple innings, that he’s got to really focus. They’ve seen what he can do, but he can’t change anything, he’s got to attack the strike zone and get ahead.”
“Last time Irvin faced them, he pitched really, really well, so he’s going to go out there and compete, and hopefully get out and get ahead of these hitters, because if you fall behind these hitters they’ve got some good hitters.”
On the mound in Citi Field this time, Irvin worked around a leadoff single and one-out walk in the first inning, but he gave up a two-out walk and back-to-back singles in the second.
Francisco Lindor, who’d singled in the first to start the game, connected for his second hit and drove in the first run in the second, then scored when Brandon Nimmo hit a fastball in the middle of the zone out to left field for an opposite field, three-run blast and a 4-0 Mets’ lead.
Raise that apple, @You_Found_Nimmo pic.twitter.com/ZqNKgLsbeu
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 9, 2024
Irvin held it there through five, but Lindor hit a center-cut 2-1 fastball to right for a two-out, two-run home run in the sixth, putting the home team up 6-0 in what ended up a 7-5 win.
OUR SHORTSTOP pic.twitter.com/78xf3uCLG0
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 10, 2024
Overall in the outing, Irvin allowed nine hits (two home runs), two walks, and six runs, all earned, throwing a total of 94 pitches, 64 strikes, with seven swinging strikes, 14 called strikes, (eight of them on his sinker), and 18 pitches fouled off.
“He wasn’t as sharp, his breaking ball wasn’t as sharp. He fell behind a couple hitters, made some mistakes just by location,” Martinez said after the game.
“But all in all he gave us the innings we needed, it was just one of those days.”
“He couldn’t get that big out,” the manager added, summing up Irvin’s struggles.
“He’s been a workhorse for us, so just one game, he’ll get back, he’s got one more start before the [All-Star] break, he’ll lock it in and go back out there and compete.”
ADON FOR HERZ:
Davey Martinez told reporters after the 3rd of 4 with the Cards in D.C. that his bullpen was taxed and in need of help, and before Monday’s series finale they made a move, optioning DJ Herz out to Triple-A Rochester, and calling up right-hander Joan Adon to give the club some length out of the bullpen.
“The bullpen’s been worked a lot, as we know,” Martinez explained.
“[Adon] just gives us one more arm in the bullpen for the next five days, until we figure out what we’re going to do next. Hopefully, he can help us out there.”
Adon, 25, has 29 big league appearances on his resume, 26 of them starts, and the righty made five appearances out of the bullpen at Triple-A in recent weeks before the Nationals called him up for the series finale with the Cards in Nats Park.
Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
“I talked to him earlier today and I talked to him about just being where his feet are, right?” Martinez said before the game. “Getting one hitter at a time. And that doesn’t change as a [reliever], just make sure that he gives himself enough time to get himself ready, cause the routine is a little different, even though down there [at Triple-A] he was working a lot on trying to get himself prepared to try to come in games, but I think he’s going to be ready to go.”
Adon’s stuff played up a bit in his relief outings, according to Martinez, who said he thought it would be a good move for the pitcher, who has struggled to go deep in his starts in the majors, looking good at times then struggling a couple times through opposing lineups.
“I think moving him to the bullpen is definitely going to help him, I really do,” Martinez said.
“He can be a guy that comes in, we know he throws hard, he’s got a good changeup, good slider, but I think it can help him. Typically, when we had him here in the past he gave us 2-3 really good innings, and then it seems about that 4th or 5th inning he kind of faded a little bit, so this could be a boost to his career and to us.”
Adon’s stuff did play up when he took the mound in Monday’s game, but he gave up three hits and two earned runs in the appearance.