Once again the bats couldn’t find their footing against another Washington starter
For the second day in a row the San Francisco Giants offense looked hapless against a Washington Nationals starter.
Swap lefty MacKenzie Gore with RHP Jake Irvin, who scattered 3 hits and 2 walks over 8 innings while striking out 7. There was no “ghost” injury this time to pull Irvin from the mound, nor was there a bullpen meltdown to save them. No consecutive walks, wild pitches, no rallies-for-free — the offense went quietly in Saturday’s 3 – 0 loss.
The 8 complete were the deepest Irvin has pitched into a game, the 7 strikeouts were tied with his season high, the 3 hits allowed tied with his lowest — without a doubt this was the righty’s best start of the season so far, and he might’ve taken a page out of fellow curveball enthusiast Landen Roupp’s book to do it.
Other than Roupp, no one relies on their curve more than Irvin. His 39% usage is a hair below the Giants’ right-hander. When hitters get ready to face Irvin, this is the brief: be ready for Uncle Charlie. Uncle Charlie is going to swing by, drop in, say ‘hello’ at any time, in any count. Irvin’s lowest usage with the curve was 30% against Philadelphia in his first start of the season, and on Saturday, he threw it just 24% of the time. A lot for other starters, but a serious dip for him.
Roupp took a similar course of action on Friday facing an all-lefty line-up. For Irvin, I imagine the reasoning was simple: the Giants continue to be stymied by the 4-seam. Even with his dominant slider/curve pairing, Gore bumped up his usage of the fastball on Friday. Irvin was there, he saw how effective it was stealing strikes. They certainly talked it over in the clubhouse afterwards. This is becoming the game-plan for opponents facing this line-up.
Irvin threw a fastball nearly 70% of the time (40% 4-seam, 28% sinker — weirdly enough, the Giants crush sinkers) — his most on the season by far. The shift in approach obviously kept Giants hitters, especially early in the game, off-balanced. They kept expecting the breaking ball and kept getting something else. It’s the ultimate playground insult: not being picked on in the same way as everyone else. You’re not only getting bullied, but you’re being excluded as well.
A complicated swirly of emotions that probably left Matt Chapman reeling most of all. As Bryan Murphy noted recently, his slow start can be partly explained by his struggles against the four-seam. He went 0-for-4 yesterday, retired on Irvin fastballs in three at-bats, and notably grounded into a double-play with two-on and nobody out in the 4th to scuttle the only legitimate scoring chance of the afternoon.
In his first at-bat, Chapman took back-to-back fastballs in a two strike count. The four-seam, nestled fully at the top of the zone, was missed by the home plate umpire and called a ball. Given a new lease on life, Chapman again seemed to stick to his game plan and hunt the breaking ball, and was promptly iced by a back-door sinker.
After seeing two curves early in his first at-bat, Irvin went heavy on the gas in the 4th. In a 1-0 count, Chapman again played spectator as two fastballs parsed the zone. He finally got the bat off his shoulder on the fourth pitch, but the middle-of-the-plate, 94 MPH, no-respect 4-seam fastball he swung at appeared to jump on him. Shallow contact to the opposite field and right into the ground, good for a 4-6-3 rally killer.
That AB, and the subsequent K supplied by Willy Adames (on a 4-seam), were the Giants’ only chances with runners in scoring position.
As for Kyle Harrison, making his first start of the 2025 season — he threw a bad pitch to the wrong guy and got hung with the loss. You don’t want to serve up a slurve to James Wood like Harrison did in the 1st. He’s 6’ 7’’, 230 pounds yet lithe with deceptively quick hands. The inner third of the plate and down is a no-fly zone for pitchers — Wood reminded Harrison of that when he rocketed the slurve on a line over the wall in right.
After that, Harrison used the breaking ball more sparingly. Facing another lefty after Wood in Nathaniel Lowe, he peppered the zone with 6 four-seamers, in-and-out, side-to-side, before getting him to swing through one elevated on the outer-third. Other than CJ Abrams chasing a slurve way out of the zone to start the game, all of Harrison’s strikeouts came by way of the fastball, a pitch he used 74% of the time. On a 60 pitch-limit, the young lefty went as deep as you’d reasonably expect, throwing four complete, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and striking out 4.
Another familiar face in Tristan Beck, called up to fill Justin Verlander’s spot, made his season debut out of the bullpen. The righty in long relief gave up a run on two hits over three innings pitched. A solid welcome-back performance that kept the score within reach…theoretically.