Irving gets back on track:
Jake Irvin pitched 10 innings in his final two games before the All-Star break, allowing 18 hits, five walks, 13 runs and 12 earned runs. The four home runs he allowed in those starts were the same as the number he had allowed in his previous eight games and 49 innings combined.
“He was pitching really well prior to those two tough starts,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Sunday afternoon before Irvin took the mound for his first start back from a break.
“I think the rest has definitely helped him, not physically but mentally,” Martinez added. “So he’s feeling good. I saw him in the bullpen and he pitched really well, so hopefully he can keep it up like he did in the first half of the season. He’s feeling really, really good.”
Photo: Mitchell Leighton/Getty Images
Irvin finished the “first half” with a 3.49 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 29 walks, 99 strikeouts, and a .231 ERA/.283 on-base percentage/.395 slugging percentage in 20 starts and 116 innings pitched.
“He’s in good form,” Martinez said. “I thought he pitched really well in the first half of the season, but I think he needed the rest during the All-Star break more than anyone else. I’m hoping that continues in the second half of the season.”
In Sunday’s series finale against the Cincinnati Reds, Irving pitched seven innings, threw 100 pitches, threw 66 strikeouts, and allowed just five hits, two of which were solo home runs, while allowing just two runs. He did not allow a walk, struck out 13 batters (nine on fastballs) and seven on 19 strikeouts (seven on fastballs and eight on curveballs).
“He’s been really good,” Martinez said after the Nationals’ 5-2 victory over the Reds, their third straight win and the series win.
“The curveball was really effective today. He had a lot of snap. He wanted to pitch one more inning, but 100 pitches in seven innings is pretty good. He did a great job.”
Irvin started 50% of the time with his four-seam fastball, higher than his season average of 36%, and 26% with his curveball, lower than his yearly average of 34.6%. Martinez said he was simply going with what was working.
“I thought his four-seam fastball worked really well too,” Martinez explained.
“So when he attacks the strike zone and mixes up his pitches, he’s very effective. We saw that today. He threw a couple of fastballs over home plate and one curveball that he wanted to get back. He didn’t throw it very well, but other than that he was good.”
“I think the break was a bit of a refresher,” Irvin said. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after the revelation.
“It just reminds me to stay grounded, stay on my feet and play in attack mode. Coming out today and going for the sweep was just to get the game going for me so I can stay in the game and do what I’ve been doing offensively. It was awesome.”
Solid wood:
James Wood started well in the major leagues, slashing 8-for-25 (.320/.452/.480) with a double, a home run, six walks and seven strikeouts in his first seven games, but over his next nine games and 37 at-bats he was just 6-for-36 (.167/.189/.167) with no walks and 17 strikeouts, as the league and Wood began to adjust to one another.
After Wood hit a game-winning, three-run homer in the eighth inning of the Nationals’ 5-2 win over the Reds on Sunday, his manager, Davey Martinez, said Wood was the same person and the same player during that time.
“He’s the same guy that he’s always been. Opponents go in and anticipate how the game is going to play out and figure out their weaknesses,” Martinez explained. “He’s just adjusting as the game plays out, but when you talk to him, he’s really smart and he knows what he wants to do. That was evident in today’s game. He kept a pretty good fastball in the zone and hit it hard the other way. I think it was 106 mph and he can do that. I feel like every time he’s up to bat, he’s going to hit it hard.”
Martinez said the 21-year-old slugger is willing to listen and learn as he becomes accustomed to playing at the major league level.
“He wants to learn. He listens. And like I said, it makes me feel good to see his name in the lineup,” Martinez said with a laugh. “And when he steps up to bat, he’s going to give it his all and hit the ball hard, he’s going to run the bases hard and he’s going to do all the little things that we ask of him. He’s going to get better at left field, and he’s getting better.”
“With him here, our future will be bright.”
