Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats try to avoid sweep after 2nd straight loss to the Braves…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ loss to the Braves in Atlanta on Sunday…

IRVIN IN ATL:

Davey Martinez talked before Jake Irvin’s outing against the Phillies last week on the road in Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park about the growth he’s seen from Washington’s 27-year-old, 2018 4th Round pick in his second run as part of the Nationals’ big league rotation.

“He’s been a student of the game all year long,” Martinez said. “He does his due diligence, but he works hard, and he understands what he needs to do every time he goes out there, and he’s an unbelievable competitor.

“One thing he’s learned a lot this year, is about how to stay in the moment, which has been awesome.”

Going forward, he said, he wanted to see Irvin continue to do what he’d done to that point this season, which left him with a 3.72 ERA, 4.13 FIP, and a .238/.286/.417 line against over 25 starts and 145 IP.

Irvin gave up four runs on eight hits (three home runs) in six innings in CBP, and kept it close enough for his teammates to get going for an eventual comeback win.

“Just keep us in it long enough for good things to happen,” he said after the start, which left him with a 3.81 ERA, a 4.31 FIP, and a .241/.288/.428 line against in 26 GS and 151 IP overall.

“I thought things went well for the most part.”

Photo by Adam Hagy/Getty Images

On Saturday afternoon Atlanta, GA’s Truist Park, Irvin made his 27th start of the season, this one a 5 ¹⁄₃-inning outing in which he gave up five hits (one home run), three walks, and two runs total.

Irvin got a double play from Marcell Ozuna after a leadoff single and a walk in the first, then stranded a two-out free pass. He stranded a leadoff single in the second. Ozuna hit into his second double play of the game after a one-out walk in the third. He retired six straight, but Orlando Arcia hit a full-count slider inside out to left field for a solo home run and the first of the two runs on Irvin’s line.

Back-to-back singles in the sixth inning ended his outing (though he got an out at second base on a throw in by Joey Gallo in right field), and the one runner Irvin left on scored on a double by Matt Olson off Nats’ lefty Robert Garcia, which tied it up at 2-2 before a single by Travis d’Arnaud drove in the go-ahead run a batter later, 3-2, on the way to a 4-2 win for the home team.

“Losing stinks,” Irvin said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, after the second straight loss to the Braves he’d held scoreless in a total of 16 innings over three starts before giving up a run in the fifth.

“You don’t like to lose,” he continued.

“But we’re a young team. We’re learning. And we’re giving ourselves chances to win, which is something you have to be really hopeful about and really grateful for.

“Because we’re competing. We’re giving ourselves the opportunity to be in these games.”

You don’t give yourself much of an opportunity to win when you go 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and eight left on base in a close game with their NL East rivals.

Did he have any regrets about going with Garcia over Irvin (who was at just 83 pitches in the sixth when Martinez went to the bullpen)?

“[Irvin] started getting the ball up a little bit. His velo was down a little bit that inning. We had the right matchup with [Garcia], just missed location. But the pitching was pretty good.

“We hold these guys down three runs, just a hit, but we don’t hit. We were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position again. We got to start driving in runs.

“We’re scoring two runs a game, we got to start driving in some runs.”

Diagnosing what’s not working for the offense, Martinez said, “We’re moving the baseball, we’re just not driving the ball. Not staying in the middle of the field. Those at-bats, I know they’re grinding, but we got to do a better job of just trying to hit the ball hard in the middle of the field.”