Nationals pitchers can’t support strong offensive showing in loss to Cubs

Jake Irvin wasn’t efficient, but he was effective for most of Tuesday’s start.

​But things unraveled quickly for Irvin in the fourth inning with the Nationals leading by a run. He walked Ian Happ on five pitches and allowed a double to Nico Hoerner. Michael Conforto tied the game on a sacrifice fly and Chicago took the lead on Carson Kelly’s fielder’s choice RBI.

​Irvin then pelted Dansby Swanson, and his outing was done. But replacing Irvin with left-hander Tom Cosgrove didn’t stop the bleeding. Cosgrove struck out All-Star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong but allowed an RBI double to Seiya Suzuki that allowed the Cubs to take a two-run lead.

​That three-run fourth inning sunk the Nationals in their 8-6 loss to the Cubs.

“Frustrating for sure,” Irvin said of his outing. “Anytime you come out with a loss, it stinks. Felt really good about some things and a little worse about others.”

Irvin said he liked that his fastball velocity was up, but ultimately disappointed that the Cubs were able to ratchet up his pitch count.

He said his inefficiency was due to a lack of consistency with his breaking pitches, so the Cubs only had to honor his fastball. Irvin’s curveball usage (8%) was down significantly from his yearly average (26%).

“When struggling to locate [breaking balls], it’s a little bit more difficult to to have the confidence in it in specific counts,” he said. “But that being said, the game plan was to keep a steady mix.”

​Right-hander Max Kranick entered the game in the fifth inning and struggled to find the zone, landing just 54% of his pitches for strikes. Singles by Alex Bregman and Hoerner put pressure on Kranick early in his outing. He walked Conforto to load the bases, prompting a mound visit by pitching coach Simon Mathews.

​Kranick recalibrated and got Carson Kelly to pop out, but his command issues came back as he walked Swanson to bring in a run. He escaped the bases-loaded jam by inducing a popup from Crow-Armstrong.

​It wasn’t the prettiest, but the Nationals’ bullpen did its best to mitigate the damage and give the offense a chance Tuesday. The lineup is still formidable enough to compete with the best teams in the National League. Even when they were down, the Nationals continued stringing together quality at-bats.

All-Star CJ Abrams gave the Nationals an early two-run lead after he recorded his 29th homer of the season and his first in August.

​Jacob Young hit a solo homer in the second, and Dylan Crews slugged a homer in the fifth. The Nationals tied a team record with four players with at least 10 homers and 10 stolen bases (Young, Wood, Abrams and designated hitter Daylen Lile).

Young now has a 1.109 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in the month of August, building on the form he showed during a sterling July. He said that he and the coaching staff had a talk around the All-Star break about chasing fewer pitches outside the strike zone.

“So just working on that, understanding how [pitchers are] attacking me,” he said.

Trailing 8-4 in the eighth, Brady House drew a walk and advanced to third on Harry Ford’s one-out double. Pinch hitter Jorbit Vivas drilled a slider to left field for an RBI single before Lile flew out on a well-struck ball to right field. Down to their final out, Nasim Nuñez kept the inning alive with an RBI single to center field that cut the deficit to two.

After a lull as they dealt with the subtractions of Curtis Mead and Luis García Jr., at the trade deadline, the Nationals’ offense has roared back, and the lineup showed its potency Tuesday.

Contributions from Young and House, who recorded his second three-hit performance of the season, make the offense even more challenging. Manager Blake Butera said that he believes House can “take off” because of how encouraging his performance was Tuesday.

“We know what [House] can do with how hard he hits the ball, and tonight he had some some softer hits,” he said. “I was impressed by that because he was able to move some balls forward, not in like perfect swings or perfect timing. A lot of these really good hitters, especially with two strikes, are able to manipulate the bat a little bit and find a way to put the ball in play and get a knock. So the ability to do that, plus the walk he had, I think, was like a really good glimpse of what he can potentially be.”

As has been the case all season, the Nationals just need the pitching to pull its weight.

Kent will start Wednesday

Jackson Kent will make his major league debut as Wednesday’s starter, Butera announced postgame.

Right-hander Miles Mikolas, who came out of the bullpen Tuesday night and allowed one earned run in three innings, was seen giving hugs to some members of the pitching staff in the clubhouse after the loss.