Washington Nationals news & notes: Sloppy defense in 1st dooms Nats; Blue Jays win 6-3 in D.C.

Notes and quotes from Saturday’s loss in the nation’s capital, plus a totally not jinxy look at Kyle Finnegan’s season so far…

IRVIN AND UNEARNED RUNS:

On a wet infield in the nation’s capital on Saturday, the Washington Nationals played a really sloppy inning of baseball in the top of the first, with two errors behind starter Jake Irvin, and a walk, a pair of singles, and a two-run double (not in that order) leading to four (unearned) runs for the Toronto Blue Jays in what ended up a 6-3 win for the visiting team.

Irvin settled in after that and held the Jays off the board through the next four innings, with four strikeouts in a 107-pitch, 69-strike outing, in which he recorded six swinging strikes and collected a total of 20 called strikes (nine on his fastball, five each on his sinker and curve, and one on his cutter).

The home team never recovered from the first, though they did get two runs in the seventh on a bases-loaded sac fly by CJ Abrams and an RBI single by Nick Senzel, and one on a Luis García, Jr. RBI single in the ninth.

“It was bad. First inning was not good,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters after the Blue Jays evened things up in the three-game series. “We couldn’t throw the ball to first base. So just one of those days, right? The weather was not good, but we should have made those plays. [Jake] threw the ball really well. He should have had a couple of double plays there. We just couldn’t capitalize on that. But we tried to battle back, we scored late again, we just couldn’t score early. I thought we were going to be able to do something against [Jays’ starter Kevin Gausman], his pitch count got up there pretty good, but we just couldn’t get that one run or two. Just one of those days. We’ve been playing really good defense and I harp on it all the time. Today just wasn’t that day.”

“We could have got out of that first inning maybe with just one run,” the Nationals’ skipper added, “just couldn’t play defense behind him. He was good all day. He gave us five good innings.

“After that first inning he didn’t give up any runs.”

FINNEGAN AGAIN:

Kyle Finnegan has converted 10 of 11 save opportunities this season, while posting a 2.03 ERA, a 4.34 FIP, 9.45 K/9, a (too-high) 4.05 BB/9, and .136/.240/.296 line against in 14 games and 13 ¹⁄₃ IP this year.

Finnegan has also faced three batters or fewer in eight straight outings, throwing clean, efficient innings, while allowing just one (unearned) run over his last 12 trips to the mound.

“It’s all about throwing strikes for him, it really is,” manager Davey Martinez said after Finnegan’s 13-pitch, 3-K, 1-2-3 frame last time out on May 1st. “[He’s] attacking the strike zone, he’s utilizing his fastball well, his split has been really good, so he’s attacking the strike zone, which I love, both the bottom and top, and when he’s around the strike zone he’s tough to hit. What gets him in trouble is obviously the base on balls, and falling behind.

“When he falls behind he’s primarily a fastball pitcher, and hitters know that, but when he’s ahead it’s difficult to hit him.”

Two of his three Ks last time out came on his splitter, and he got one on his sweeper (a pitch he’s introduced this year, effectively replacing his slider), in 1-2, 1-2, and 2-2 counts.

“Exactly,” Martinez said. “And this is exactly what I’m talking about. He can’t get to those pitches unless he’s ahead. He doesn’t like throwing them [behind]. And when he does, they really are effective, especially his splitter, so working ahead is definitely beneficial for him, as any other pitcher, and that’s what he’s doing really well right now.”

With the splitter, location is key, Martinez said, and his .167 BAA on the pitch so far this season suggests he’s locating it well in the first month-plus.

“He’s throwing it down in the zone, it’s a swing and miss,” the manager explained, “… it’s not necessarily meant to be thrown as a strike, it’s kind of a swing and miss pitch, and this is why, he’s starting to understand what he needs to do with that pitch. Leaving it up is sometimes not good, so he is getting the ball down when he needs to throw that pitch. But like I said, his fastball is really playing well now, he’s got good movement on it, when he’s ahead he can do other things.”

Considering he’d spent seven seasons in the minors in the Oakland A’s system without getting a shot in the majors when the Nationals signed him to a big league deal in 2019-20, he’s come a long way in the past four seasons, but he has turned into the sort of pitcher the club thought he could be when the Nats gave him the opportunity.

“When I first met him, I saw a guy who had good stuff who didn’t really know who he was, didn’t have an identity,” the Nationals’ skipper said. “And so just by knowing him and by talking to him, by putting him in situations where I thought he could succeed, it was more or less about building confidence with him, and making him understand, ‘Hey, you can pitch here, your stuff is that good.’ And then the rest of it was up to him. He went out there and showed me every day that I put him that, hey, he can do this job, and he’s getting better at it. I think, you go from where he was to all of a sudden closing games, it’s a lot, and he’s handled it really, really well.”