Nats skipping Irvin's next turn in rotation

ATLANTA – The Nationals are going to use these couple of off-days over this week to give one of their young starters some extra rest.

Jake Irvin will have his next start skipped in the rotation, with the Nats listing Patrick Corbin, Josiah Gray and MacKenzie Gore as the probable starters for the upcoming three-game series against the Astros.

Thursday’s postponement due to poor air quality in D.C. and tomorrow’s scheduled off-day as the team travels to Houston mean the Nats have two off-days over a five-day span.

“We have an opportunity to do some different things, and to give him a break was nice,” manager Davey Martinez said of the decision to skip Irvin before today’s series finale against the Braves. “We're gonna eventually have to do that with all of our young guys here soon. We had these days off coming up, so we thought we'd give Jake a breather. But you know, he can be available out of the bullpen as well. We just want to not have him start and then he'll get back in the rotation next time around.”

Irvin, the Nats’ No. 19 prospect per MLB Pipeline, impressed over his first two major league starts. He allowed just one run in 4 ⅓ innings in his debut against the Cubs and then shut out the Giants over 6 ⅓ innings in his second outing.

But ever since, the 26-year-old right-hander has struggled to find sustained success, suffering mostly from an issue with walks. Over his last five starts, he’s given up 19 earned runs in 20 ⅓ innings (8.41 ERA) with 13 walks and four home runs.

“He's been working with (pitching coach Jim) Hickey about staying behind the baseball,” Martinez said. “Head direction as well. Not leaking to the front side. So it's been going well. The other day in the bullpen we saw his velo tick up a little bit, which is good. But we're just trying to get him straightened out so he can attack the strike zone.”

A demotion back to Triple-A Rochester doesn’t seem to be on the table for now. As Martinez mentioned, the Nats could use Irvin out of the bullpen over the next couple of days if needed. If not, he’ll have extra rest and time to prepare for his next start. The Nationals are happy with how much the young pitcher has learned in his short time with the big league club.

“He's done really well. He loves information,” Martinez said. “He goes out there and gets his work done. But he wants to get better and that's a good thing. Like I said, these guys, you gotta remember where he started from. He's the guy that had a surgery. We got him back, he's healthy and we gotta take baby steps with him. But he's learning a lot. He's learning what he needs to do to get better and we're going to keep working with him.”

* Victor Robles played in his first rehab game with Rochester yesterday. He played four innings while getting two plate appearances (a walk and a deep fly ball) and playing center field in the first game of the Red Wings’ doubleheader in Worcester.

He’s going to be the designated hitter and bat third today.

“From what we heard last night, he felt good," Martinez said. "He walked, he hit a ball to deep right-center field. He'll get a chance to DH today, depending on how he feels. I haven't talked to him this morning. But if he feels OK, we want him to DH just to get at-bats. He'll take the next day off, and then we'll get him back out there. Maybe play five or six innings in the field and see how he does.”