Early damage against Irvin sinks Nats as late rally falls short (updated)

The Nationals were riding high this week. They saw another one of their top prospects make his major league debut on Monday, then proudly watched him lead a group of other young stars in beating the Yankees twice in three games.

But the Cubs entered this series riding high, too. They found themselves back over .500 and slowly nearing the playoff race again as winners of nine of their last 12 games coming into tonight’s three-game series opener on South Capitol Street.

In the end, only one team could keep the good times rolling with another win, and unfortunately for the home team it was the visitors who came away with a 7-6 victory in front of 28,792 fans on a misty, breezy night at Nationals Park.

Something had to give between the Nats rotation and Cubs offense to start this holiday weekend set.

Nationals starters have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and 1.098 WHIP while striking out more than one batter per inning and never once allowing more than two earned runs over their last nine games. Cubs hitters have combined to score 73 runs over their last seven games, averaging 10.4 runs per game.

With Jake Irvin on the mound, the Nationals probably liked their chances. But the hot Cubs bats jumped on the right-hander early and kept him to a short outing.

All the damage came in the second inning. In a 36-pitch second frame, Irvin faced 11 batters and gave up seven runs on three straight singles, a wild pitch, a two-run double, an RBI double and a two-run home run to Cody Bellinger.

The seven runs were the most a Nats starter had given up in an outing, nonetheless a single inning, since Irvin was charged with four on Aug. 18 in Philadelphia.

“Truthfully, I just made really bad two-strike pitches," Irvin said after the game. "I put myself in the driver's seat and not being able to put guys away, making not only bad pitches, but pitches that put guys in good positions to hit and slug. To come out with seven runs is deserved.”

Irvin got through the next two innings unharmed. But he issued back-to-back walks to start the fifth, recorded two strikeouts and exited at 103 pitches, giving way to the bullpen.

“Just one inning. But that inning, everything was up," said manager Davey Martinez. "He couldn't get the ball down. Location wasn't great. And then after that, he settled down and gave us more than I thought he was going to give us after that second inning.”

The final line wasn’t a pretty sight: 4 ⅔ innings, eight hits, a career-high seven earned runs, two walks, six strikeouts, one homer, two wild pitches and a hit-batter on 103 pitches, 66 strikes.

“It's worse for the team because those guys just battled like crazy," Irvin said of the most frustrating part. "You saw that fight in the ninth. It was really cool. Guys made some good plays in the field and put together some really good at-bats. And for a young team like we have, having a seventh spot in the second inning is deflating. And I think that's the most disappointing part for sure.”

The Nationals offense did put up an early effort to try to keep pace with the scorching Cubs offense. And sure enough, they rallied to give themselves a chance to either extend the game or win it in the ninth.

They took an early first-inning lead off rookie left-hander Shota Imanaga, thanks to a James Wood single, Andrés Chaparro walks and José Tena two-run double.

Tena has hit safely in 11-of-15 games since coming up to join the Nationals.

Dylan Crews tried to do his part by hitting a first-pitch homer into the visiting bullpen to lead off the third. On a fastball right down the middle from Imanaga, he crushed his second major league longball 106.9 mph off the bat and 404 feet.

“Just stay on top of the heater, really," Crews said. "He's a good pitcher up there, so I'm riding the fastball. The first at-bat I kind of just fouled a couple of good pitches off. So going into that second one, I was just trying to be ready and trying to stay on top of it.”

“He asked me, 'Should I take a strike?" I said, 'No,'" Martinez said. "I said, 'If you get it fastball, you go ahead and let it rip.' And he did.”

Crews has four extra-base hits (two doubles and two home runs) through his first four career games, which is third-most in Nationals history (2005-present) behind only Ian Desmond (six in 2009) and Danny Espinosa (five in 2010).

As nice as it was to see the top prospect go deep again, it only made it a 7-3 ballgame. The Nats had nothing else going against the 30-year-old rookie from Japan, who used his full six-pitch arsenal.

“The fastball has ride and it kind of stays up," said CJ Abrams on what makes Imanaga difficult to face. "So whenever that splitter kind of falls off, it's a lot a swing-and-miss.”

Finally, the Nats got into the Cubs bullpen. Ildemaro Vargas was able to drive in a run to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth. Up came the struggling Abrams against lefty Drew Smyly. The young shortstop, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts so far on the night, drew a walk to load the bases for Keibert Ruiz. The young catcher struck out. But Jacob Yong hit a two-run single up the middle to make it a one-run game.

The Cubs’ second pitching change brought in right-hander Keegan Thompson to face Crews. The rookie has already shown his flare for the dramatic this week, and he almost showed more by fouling off a high cutter in a 2-1 count. But he struck out on a curveball to end the game with a chance to either tie or win it.

“Just get a good pitch to hit and pass it on to the next guy," Crews said. "We had some good momentum going through that last inning. So the guy made some good pitches. You got to tip your hat to him.”

The Nats also lost the first game against baseball’s most dangerous lineup in the Yankees on Monday. Now they’ll look to also win the last two games against the sport’s hottest lineup in the Cubs. And hopefully sooner than the ninth inning.

“I love it. I really do," Martinez said of his team's fight. "Like I said before, we're going to play hard for the last out of the game. And they did that tonight. … They never feel like they're out of a game. And I love that about them. They're gonna play hard. So I'm proud of them. We were down five runs early and we made it interesting late.”