Irvin, Abrams lead Nats to four-game series sweep of Marlins (updated)

MIAMI – The Nationals were in position tonight to do something they haven’t done since Sept. 23-26, 2019 against the Phillies: Sweep a four-game series.

The late rally Friday, the offensive explosion Saturday and the epic comeback Sunday set them up for a special wrap-around series win before continuing the road trip in Texas.

There was nothing jaw-dropping about tonight. No dramatics in the late innings. No grand slam. No improbable come-from-behind victory. Just a well played baseball game by the good guys.

The Nationals beat the Marlins 7-2 in front of an announced crowd of 6,376 at loanDepot park on a beautiful 80-degree evening in South Beach, completing the four-game mop.

Jake Irvin set the tone for the visitors. Looking to bounce back after last week’s rough outing against the Dodgers, the right-hander pitched six strong innings to improve to 2-2 on the year. He’s the first Nats starting pitcher to be credited with a win since Mitchell Parker on April 21 against the Astros.

Irvin used a good mix of his arsenal, especially his curveball (33 percent) and fastball (27). He worked well around the strike zone, getting four whiffs and 13 called strikes.

“You just kind of see things throughout the game and everything was working," Irvin said after the game. "So the better I can do that, the more I can keep guys off balance. I think once you have a little bit of confidence like that and start throwing a lot of pitches for strikes, you can change the game plan a little bit.”

The only blemish on his record was a two-out two-run home run by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the sixth to briefly make it a 3-2 game. Irvin grooved a 94 mph fastball down the middle for Chisholm to hit his fourth longball 414 feet to center field with a 104.2 mph exit velocity.

He retired the next batter and seemed poised to return for the seventh inning, something he hasn’t done yet this season despite some efficient outings. But the Nats offense had a big top of the seventh that prolonged his stay in the dugout, so Dylan Floro relieved him after the stretch.

Irvin finished his six innings with four hits, two runs, no walks and three strikeouts on 84 pitches, 59 for strikes.

“Just trying to make those guys earn it," he said. "Throw strikes and get ahead. It makes my job a lot easier when I do.”

Meanwhile, CJ Abrams paced a Nationals offense, which is on a serious heater.

After grounding out on the first pitch of the game, Abrams crushed a home run on a 92 mph fastball from Marlins starter Trevor Rogers right down the pipe. The lefty-on-lefty action with a runner on and two outs in the third resulted in the young shortstop’s seventh homer of the season. The only Nationals who have hit more home runs before the end of April are Ryan Zimmerman (11 in 2017) and Bryce Harper (who did it four times in his seven seasons in D.C.).

“Just getting my pitch," Abrams said. "Got a little antsy first pitch of the game. I probably shouldn't have swung at that one. Next AB got a pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.”

Abrams needed 66 games to hit his seventh homer last year. It took him 28 to do it this year. He’s now hitting .297 with a 1.011 OPS, seven home runs and 17 RBIs.

“I'm just trying to put a good swing on it," he said. "The biggest thing is getting a good pitch to hit. And like you saw from the first and second at-bat. The first at-bat wasn't a good pitch to hit, I grounded out. And the second one, I put a good swing on a good pitch.”

Jesse Winker drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth to make it 3-0.

After the Chisholm homer made it a one-run game, the Nats offense kicked back into gear to expand their lead. They loaded the bases for Winker with an error by Marlins first baseman Josh Bell, a fielder’s choice, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Winker grounded out to the right side, but it was enough to push Jacob Young across the plate for his second RBI of the night. Then Abrams scored on a wild pitch by Marlins reliever Andrew Nardi, Joey Meneses hit an RBI ground-rule double to left-center and Ildemaro Vargas hit an RBI single to left.

“It's awesome. It's an identity for us and that's really cool," Irvin said of the offense. "I think we do some really, really fun things I think offensively, defensively and just kind of changing the game. Making guys on the other side of the ball question what we're going to do at all times. It's really special and I love what those guys are doing.”

By the end of the frame, the Nats had put four more runs up on the board to make it 7-2.

“We're having fun out there," Abrams said. "You probably can see it, but we have good momentum going and we're going to try to keep it going.”

The added cushion was enough for manager Davey Martinez to keep Irvin in the dugout and bring in Floro for two innings and Matt Barnes for the ninth to close it out.

“He threw the ball really well," Martinez said of Irvin. "His curveball was really good. His cutter was really good as well. So he was very effective. We thought about sending him back out there. But with the long inning, I thought that was it. We knew we had Floro, we knew we had Matt. They're both fresh, so we went in that direction.”

This was just the Nats’ second four-game sweep of the Marlins, with the only previous one coming Sept. 18-21, 2014 here in Miami. And it brought them to a 14-14 record, which is their first time at .500 since starting the season 1-1 in Cincinnati and their first time at .500 this late in the season since they were 40-40 entering July 2, 2021, the day Kyle Schwarber got hurt against the Dodgers and this franchise’s future took a serious turn.

Now they head to Arlington, Texas, to test their mettle against the defending World Series champion Rangers.

“The boys played well as a team, which I love," Martinez said. "Kudos to those guys, man. We came back this series and played really well. Played good defense, we're pitching, we're getting timely hits, so it was a good series. Get on a plane and go to Texas. Just continue to play the way we're playing and we'll be in good shape.”

“We're playing good," Abrams said. "Coming together as a team. Kind of putting a plan together, before and during the game. So we just keep it going and bring it to Dallas.”