The opener strategy that the Nationals executed yesterday got put into use against them tonight, and it worked beautifully for the Pirates. Carmen Mlodzinski threw six scoreless innings sandwiched between good innings from Mason Montgomery, Gregory Soto, and Dennis Santana. To the Nats’ credit, their pitching was quality tonight as well, with Jake Irvin throwing a pretty similar game to the one he threw last Friday night in Milwaukee, and Brad Lord bringing it home with three scoreless frames. Ultimately, the two runs that crossed the plate for Pittsburgh in the first inning would be all they needed, shutting the Nats out and limiting the Nationals to just three hits.
The Action
It wasn’t a night with ZERO opportunity for the Nats’ offense, but they were few and far between. The first came in the top of the first inning against Pittsburgh’s lefty opener, Mason Montgomery. Curtis Mead continued his hot streak with a one-out double, but neither Daylen Lile nor Brady House could come up with the big hit to drive him in.
Just like last Friday night, Jake Irvin was touched for two runs in the bottom of the first, and was absolute nails over the following four. The frustrating part tonight was how avoidable the damage was. Irvin struck out the first two batters he faced before walking Bryan Reynolds with two outs. That gave way to three consecutive singles by the heart of the Pittsburgh order, the last two coming from Marcell Ozuna and Nick Gonzales, each one driving in a run.
As I’ve already mentioned, that 2-0 lead would last from the first through the ninth innings, in what was really an offensive struggle. Irvin and Mlodzinski were going back and forth, tossing zeroes on the scoreboard with very few runners on base to speak of. In fact, after that bottom of the first, the next hit for either team came on a Jorbit Vivas leadoff single in the fifth. In fact, that would be the next good rally opportunity for the Nats, as they put runners on first and second with one out, and the top of the order at the plate. This game was very nearly completely changed when James Wood came up and just barely missed a home run for the second time in the game. The inning and opportunity would come to an end after the next batter, Curtis Mead, could not come up with a big hit.
Irvin also had to get out of a jam in the fifth as his night was coming to a close. The Pirates put runners on second and third with two outs, and it was here that Jake manned up and got a huge strikeout of Marcell Ozuna to bring his day to a close with the score still locked at 2-0.
The Nats got a two-out double in the sixth from CJ Abrams, who was sneakily on base all four times tonight with one walk and two HBPs, but once again just could not get that big hit to make any dent on the scoreboard, a frustrating night in that regard for sure.
- Jake Irvin: 5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 3 walks, 5 strikeouts, 85 pitches
- Carmen Mlodzinski: 6 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 81 pitches
Once the bottom of the seventh rolled around, it was officially a bullpen game the rest of the way for both teams; at least it was the back end of the Pittsburgh bullpen against one man, Brad Lord. Lord was probably the biggest bright spot in this game from the Washington side, as he entered in the sixth, inheriting the two-run deficit, and for three frames, he kept it right there with very little difficulty. The righty faced ten batters, one above the minimum over those three frames, and got some help from his defense, but ultimately did his job to perfection.
The Pirates’ bullpen was just as stout tonight, unfortunately. Gregory Soto pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and Dennis Santana worked around a hit by pitch to CJ Abrams to close it out in the ninth, finishing what was a 2-hour and 13-minute game from first pitch to last, featuring just three hits from the Nationals and five from the Pirates.
The Positives
The three main ones tonight for this category are most definitely Abrams, Lord, and Irvin, all of whom we’ve already touched on, so unfortunately, this section is fairly brief. I do want to shout out James Wood, despite a 0-4 day on paper, he hit two balls tonight that traveled at least 366 feet, and were hit above 101.7 miles per hour. The stat sheet won’t tell you all that, so that’s why I’m here, but it was indeed another solid night for the Nats’ slugger.
What’s Next?
The Nationals will look to earn a split of this four-game series tomorrow afternoon, with the earliest start time we’ve had all season so far, first pitch coming to you at 12:35 tomorrow afternoon. The Nats will send Foster Griffin (2-0, 1.76 ERA) to the mound to try to replicate the gem he threw last weekend in Milwaukee. He’ll be opposed by another youngster in this Pittsburgh rotation, Braxton Ashcraft (1-1, 2.12 ERA), who has been tremendous so far this season, perhaps a little bit overshadowed by the likes of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, and Bubba Chandler.
Down on the Farm
AAA Rochester
- 6-3 win today versus Buffalo
- Shinnosuke Ogasawara: 4.1 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
- Dylan Crews: 2-4, home run (2), RBI
- Andres Chaparro: 1-1, home run (2), RBI, 3 walks
- Yo-Yo Morales: 3-4
- Riley Adams: 2-4, home run (2), 3 RBIs
- Tomorrow: 6:05 game versus Buffalo (Luis Perales pitching)
AA Harrisburg
- Today’s game postponed
- Doubleheader tomorrow, beginning at 5:05
High-A Wilmington
- 6-5 loss tonight versus Hub City
- Liam Sullivan: 4 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts
- Devin Fitz-Gerald: 1-1, home run (2), RBI, 3 walks, HBP, stolen base
- Angel Feliz: 1-4, RBI
- Ethan Petry: 1-2, RBI, 2 walks
- Elijah Green: 2-4, home run (3), 2 RBIs
- Tomorrow: 6:35 game versus Hub City (Riley Maddox pitching)
Low-A Fredericksburg
- 7-5 loss today versus Delmarva
- Leuris Portorreal: 4.1 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts
- Eli Willits: 1-5, home run (1) (inside the park, first big league homer), RBI
- Yeremy Cabrera: 3-5, triple
- Ronny Cruz: 1-2, home run (3), 2 RBIs, walk, 3 stolen bases
- Coy James: 1-2, 2 walks, stolen base
- Tomorrow: 6:35 game versus Delmarva (Nolan Hughes pitching)
