The third inning of Jake Irvin’s outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers last week in Dodger Stadium was a tough one, with the 26-year-old rookie giving up back-to-back singles, then surrendering a ground-rule double, sac fly, and an RBI single which put Washington down 4-1 in what ended up a 9-3 loss for the Nationals.
His manager liked the fact that Irvin kept going and followed up with two scoreless innings of work in the five-inning, 94-pitch outing.
“Just the ball got up a little bit,” Davey Martinez said.
“But for the most part it was encouraging to watch him get through it, and come back out the next inning, and the next two innings, and pitch really well.