Instant Analysis: Nats 6, White Sox 3 (10)
Nasim Nuñez's two clutch hits ensured the Nationals wouldn't waste Jake Irvin's best start of the young season
CHICAGO – The Nationals spent all afternoon desperately waiting for a clutch hit from someone. In the end, they got two of them across 10 innings. Each via the bat of Nasim Nuñez.
With a two-run single in the fourth and a two-run single in the 10th, Nuñez delivered the key hits nobody else on the Nats seemed capable of producing. And thanks to a dominant start from Jake Irvin and just enough relief pitching when it mattered, the Nationals emerged with an extra-inning victory over a White Sox club that helped the visitors out with poor relief pitching of its own.
Handed a 2-0 lead by Irvin, Mitchell Parker and Gus Varland combined to give both runs back in the bottom of the eighth. Cionel Pérez got himself into a bottom-of-the-ninth jam with a pair of walks and was in danger of suffering a walk-off loss, but the left-hander responded by striking out Colson Montgomery to send this game into extras.
In a game rife with walks, hit batters, wild pitches and passed balls, the Nationals took the lead in the top of the 10th when automatic runner James Wood scampered home after White Sox catcher Drew Romo couldn’t handle a pitch from Jordan Leasure. Joey Wiemer drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the lead to 4-2. Nuñez then put the final touches on the four-ran rally with his two-out single to right, sending many in the crowd of 35,174 home disappointed.
Each team had early opportunities to take the lead; neither could convert with runners in scoring position. The White Sox stranded a pair in the first. The Nationals then stranded runners on second and third in the third. They were on the verge of doing it again in the fourth when Nuñez finally delivered a two-out, two-run single up the middle for a 2-0 lead. That’s all the Nats would get for a while, battling the late-afternoon shadows as the game progressed.
Unlike Chicago starter Noah Schultz, Irvin sustained his early success straight through his final pitch. The right-hander wound up tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out nine without issuing a walk in his best outing of the season. And though he was disappointed to be pulled at only 88 pitches, Parker entered from the bullpen and struck out three more batters over 1 1/3 innings.
HITTING HIGHLIGHT: Clutch hitting has been a problem for the Nationals all week, with far too many runners stranded in scoring position. That made Nuñez’s two big singles today so important. The Nats had been 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in the third and fourth innings, but the light-hitting middle infielder came through, sending a sharp single up the middle with two outs to plate the game’s first two runs. Nuñez, who also drew a walk and played a clean shortstop while CJ Abrams got the day off, then came through one more time with his two-run single in the 10th. It’s exactly the kind of contributions the Nationals want to see from him.
PITCHING HIGHLIGHT: This was by far the best start of Irvin’s season, and arguably one of the best of his career. And what made it so impressive was the way he kept getting better as the afternoon progressed, identifying what was working for him and using that to his advantage. Irvin attacked with mostly fastballs the first three innings, each of them scoreless. He then turned to his curveball, which was electric and often unhittable. Irvin recorded six strikeouts over his final two innings, and five of them came via curveball. His last six pitches were all curveballs, all of them swinging strikes. This was the best version of Irvin, and the Nationals would love to see more of it moving forward.
NOTABLE: Irvin and Parker combined to strike out four batters in the bottom of the sixth. The only other time the Nationals struck out four batters in one inning was April 26, 2006, when Jon Rauch recorded all of them against the Reds, per Elias Sports. That was 20 years ago Sunday.
UP NEXT: At long last, the Nationals’ streak of 17 consecutive game days comes to an end when these two teams meet Sunday at 2:10 p.m. EDT for the series finale. Foster Griffin gets the ball for his sixth start of the season. Right-hander Sean Burke, drafted out of the University of Maryland, starts for the White Sox. TV: Nationals TV RADIO: 106.7 FM
Jake Irvin legacy game
Irvin pitched very well. Getting more innings from the starters is exactly what this team needs, because once the bullpen comes in, it’s always an adventure.
I do wonder what Irvin said, that got him pulled in the 6th. I would’ve let him try to finish the inning unless he told them he was tired or they saw something concerning.
The Nats scoring 6 runs on only 6 hits and no homers that's pretty good, but getting 10 walks helps . This time it was the White Sox who burst into flames at the end instead of the Nats.