Three homers ultimately doom Irvin, Nats in loss to Giants (updated)

There wasn’t much of anything Jake Irvin could do about the two runs the Giants scored off him during a sequence of unfortunate events in the top of the third tonight at Nationals Park. There was quite a bit he could’ve done about the three runs that scored off him the next two innings, ultimately the decisive runs in the home team’s 7-4 loss.

Needing a top-flight effort to keep pace with San Francisco ace Blake Snell, Irvin was done in by a string of well-placed hits in the third but then three solo homers after that. It was the right-hander’s fourth subpar start out of his last six, a stretch that is threatening to undo what was a breakthrough first half for the 27-year-old.

"The defense played outstanding. The offense put up some numbers against a Cy Young winner and really good pitcher," Irvin said. "And I let the team down."

The Nationals, meanwhile, failed to carry over any positive momentum from their blowout victory Tuesday night and now need to win Thursday’s rescheduled series finale – first pitch has been moved up to 12:05 p.m. in hopes of beating the worst of the forecasted rain – to salvage a four-game split with the Giants.

"This is a tough time of year, for everybody," manager Davey Martinez said. "And I know they're grinding. These guys are grinding, and they're figuring some stuff out."

The erratic nature of the Nats’ offensive production this season had to leave doubts in plenty of minds tonight. How would a lineup that exploded for 11 runs Tuesday night fare 24 hours later against the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, who just threw a no-hitter five days ago?

Turns out, they fared OK. Not great, but probably better than expected. The Nationals broke up the no-hitter – and allowed Johnny Vander Meer’s descendants to pop open a bottle of champagne – in the bottom of the first when Juan Yepez was credited with an infield single on a dribbler to first in which Snell couldn’t get positioned to catch the throw as he covered the base.

Two innings later, they got on the board with an impressive two-out rally. Alex Call, moved all the way up to the No. 2 spot in the lineup against the lefty, sent a sharp single through the left side for an RBI single that raised his season batting average to .400. Moments later, Yepez (batting third) crushed a curveball from Snell down the left field for a two-run homer and a 3-2 Nats lead.

"I was super-pumped when Yepez hit that home run," Call said. "Obviously the battle to get the base hit was big for me after he had punched me out in the first. It was good. It felt like we had the momentum."

Snell would settle down after that, forcing the Nationals to make the three early runs hold up. That proved a particularly difficult task for Irvin and Co.

The right-hander got through two scoreless innings thanks to a double play in the first and a diving catch by Call in the second. He needed someone to make a big play in the field in the third, though, and despite several opportunities, nobody could pull it off. Four straight Giants reached on two-out singles, none of them with an exit velocity of even 75 mph. Irvin had to feel like the unluckiest man on the planet, but there was nothing he could do but shrug his shoulders and move on.

"It's baseball," he said. "You can't let it get totally out of control. Two runs is still disappointing. But that's the game. There's going to be breaks that don't go your way. It happens."

Irvin did have control over what happened in the fourth and fifth innings, though, and his inability to locate pitches down in the zone cost him dearly. Mike Yastrzemski blasted a high fastball to right for a solo homer in the fourth. Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman then blasted hanging curveballs to left for solo homers in the fifth, giving San Francisco a 5-3 lead and spoiling Irvin’s night.

He departed at the end of that inning, his pitch count up to 94, his ERA up to 3.76, his home run rate up to 1.3 surrendered per nine innings.

"I definitely wouldn't have thrown them above the belt," Irvin said of the three pitches that resulted in homers tonight. "In general, I have to be more fine. Not perfect, but better."

The deficit only grew when Jose A. Ferrer entered from the bullpen and proceeded to plunk Tyler Fitzgerald before surrendering a triple to Yastrzemski and a single to Jerar Encarnacion. The Nationals now needed a significant rally late to make a game of this. They managed to get one run across in the seventh and load the bases with two out, but with the crowd pleading for a clutch hit, Yepez struck out on a well-placed, 3-2 slider from Ryan Walker.

And with one last chance in the bottom of the ninth, the Nats loaded the bases and brought Call to the plate representing the winning run. Call, who had done just about everything else tonight including another highlight-reel catch while slamming into the wall, didn't have one last bit of magic in his bat. The most patient hitter on the current roster grounded into a 6-4-3 double play on the first and only pitch he saw from Camilo Doval, ending the game on a sour note.

"The last at-bat's pretty fresh," Call said. "But I was really proud of the way we battled. We got the winning run up at the plate, and I was just trying to move the line. It didn't work out."