Irvin sets career highs as Nats power past Giants to win series opener (updated)

The Nationals have had success in series-opening games in July. Entering tonight’s opener against the Giants, they had won three of their last five opening games, outscoring their opponents 16-11.

It’s the other games in series that have caused them trouble to start the second half of season, as they've been outscored by the Cardinals and Cubs 42-16 in such affairs. But we’ll worry about those later this weekend.

As of now, that positive part of the trend continued with tonight’s 5-3 win over the Giants as the Nats were welcomed back home for the first time since the All-Star break by 26,062 fans on South Capitol Street.

“Very good game. The boys played well," said manager Davey Martinez. "All around it was a very, very good day. I loved the way we played today.”

The Nationals displayed some power early, thanks to their new top of the lineup.

Lane Thomas hit his 16th home run of the season in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 1-1. He launched a first-pitch sinker from Giants left-hander Alex Wood 413 feet to center field.

“He's got kind of a quick, like, jerky motion when he gets set, so I was just trying to be ready for something hard early and see the ball early," Thomas said. "Because sometimes they'll deceive me when I faced him in the past, so just trying to be on time.”

Thomas had been struggling since moving into the two-hole in favor of CJ Abrams batting leadoff. Entering tonight, his 12th game hitting No. 2, Thomas was only hitting .167 with a .466 OPS. But this homer sparked the Nats offense and was his fifth longball hit in the first inning, the most he has in any inning.

“I don't know if there's a huge difference," he said. "I just think the first at-bat's a little different just because you have a chance to drive in a run if CJ gets on. When before I was just trying to get on base. So yeah, it's been fun. I feel like those guys have been on base for me quite a bit in the last five or six games as long as I keep driving them in.”

After Keibert Ruiz gave the Nats a 2-1 lead with an RBI double later in the first, Abrams continued his red-hot hitting in the leadoff spot with his ninth homer of the season in the bottom of the second. He too hit a sinker from Wood to center field, going one foot further than Thomas.

“I feel good," Abrams said. "I'm just trying to get a pitch I can handle early and don't miss it. I did a good job with that today.”

It was Abrams’ second homer as a leadoff hitter in just his 11th game from that spot, and it was just the Nationals’ 23rd game with multiple home runs this season.

“He's not trying to do too much," Martinez said. "He's trying to stay in the middle of the field. He's trying to get on base for his teammates. I talk a lot about leading off, about being that catalyst for eight other guys behind you, and he's doing it right now and I love it. He's playing with a lot of energy, really focused on just trying to hit balls in the zone. And playing defense really well. … All the little things we've asked him to do, he's done it really well.”

After Stone Garrett was hit by a pitch and driven in by Michael Chavis’ RBI double into the left field corner to give the Nats a 4-3 lead in the fourth, Abrams was back to doing leadoff things in the fifth. He singled to right to start the frame, stole second base (after the Nats’ second successful challenge of the night) and scored on Joey Meneses’ RBI double to left for a 5-3 lead.

Abrams is now hitting .415 with a double, triple, two homers, 11 runs scored, three RBIs, eight stolen bases, two walks, five strikeouts and 1.089 OPS from the leadoff spot.

“It's the same game," he said. "I just get to hit more, I guess. More ABs, more opportunities to show what I got.”

Over 2 ½ months since his dominant start against the Giants in San Francisco (6 ⅓ scoreless innings with five strikeouts), Jake Irvin set out to do it again.

“I think it goes both ways," Irvin said of the challenge of repeating success against the same lineup. "I've seen them and I know what they do really well and where I can try and take advantage of certain things and using that to my advantage.”

It started a little shaky for the rookie right-hander, who only completed three innings in his previous start. Although he made a good pitch, J.D. Davis took an outside fastball the other way into the Nats bullpen for a quick 1-0 lead in the first.

Irvin then gave up a two-out single to LaMonte Wade Jr. and a two-run homer to Joc Pederson to allow San Francisco to tie the game at 3-3 in the third. But he settled in from there, facing the minimum over the next three innings.

“I think it was pretty clear that they started to sit on the breaking ball a little bit, especially early in counts with the Wade single and Pederson home run," he said. "But just got to kind of change up the mojo after that. I decided that throwing changeups was probably going to be the best way to keep guys off balance. And props to Keibert, too. He called a fantastic game and we were on the same page the whole way.”

Irvin's most impressive sequence came when he struck out the side in the sixth, all looking. He got Wade looking at an 86-mph changeup, Pederson at a 92-mph sinker and Davis at a 95-mph sinker.

"Jake set the tone today, so we followed his lead," Martinez said. "We scored runs. He was really good. He faced 25 batters. He fell behind six of them. ... That was awesome. He used his changeup. He threw 18-20 changeups. They started looking for his curveball. He went to his changeup and it was very effective and he threw the ball well.”

A two-out single put runners on the corners and knocked Irvin out of the game at 111 pitches, easily his career high and the most by a Nats starter this year. But he also departed with a career-high nine strikeouts. His final line included five hits, three runs and one walk over 6 ⅔ innings.

“Just kind of throwing the ball in the zone, challenging hitters and make them put the ball in play," he said. "Strikeouts don't really happen because you are trying to strike guys out. It's just making quality pitches.

“I know our bullpen's scuffling a little bit. Some guys are injured and down and whatnot. Just trying to get as deep in the game as possible, save those arms a little bit and hope that they can help us win a series in the next couple days.”

“Awesome," Martinez said. "It was a growth moment, for sure, today with him.”

The battered Nats bullpen took it from there. Jordan Weems (who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh), Jose A. Ferrer (who had an impressive shutdown inning with two strikeouts in the eighth) and Kyle Finnegan (who recorded his 13th save of the season in the ninth) backed their starter with a combined 2 ⅓ scoreless innings.

“Ferrer came in a big moment, pounded the strike zone, threw the ball really well," Martinez said. "He was up to 96, which is what we know about and what he can do. But he threw the ball well. Weems got a big out for us, and then Finnegan, who has been throwing the ball really well for us, finished the game for us."

And so the Nationals’ current streak of starting series strong continues. It remains to be seen if they can flip the script in these next two games and win their first series since the break.

“That was awesome," Thomas said. "Yeah, absolutely, going into maybe the next couple of days, take a series.”