Irvin, Nats take Game 1 of Coors Field twin bill

DENVER -- The outcome may have seemed like déjà vu all over again, with the Nationals squeaking out a one-run win over the Rockies, but the path to victory was a different story. This time, the Nats took advantage of a bizarre second inning to take the early lead in the first game of a Coors Field doubleheader Sunday, making the most of a pair of errors en route to a 3-2 final that secured the series for Washington.

“One more than the other guys,” manager Dave Martinez said. “We capitalized on a few mistakes. That's baseball, right?”

Washington didn’t fare as well in the nightcap, falling to Colorado 3-1 and missing out on the sweep as it wrapped a 4-6 road trip.

Dylan Crews started the Game 1 rally in the second inning with a one-out single deep in the hole at short, extending his hitting streak to a career-high five games. Riley Adams followed with a single to right, and when Crews took off to steal third, Rockies catcher Braxton Fulford sailed his throw into left field, allowing Crews to score and Adams to take second.

Jacob Young drew a walk and Trey Lipscomb reached base on a high hopper to load the bases. Nasim Nu?ez hit a comebacker to the mound, which Rockies ace Kyle Freeland fielded and threw to home for the forceout, but when Fulford threw to first in an attempt to complete a double play, his throw went into right field, allowing two more runs to come home.

The Rockies pulled within one on solo home runs from right fielder Zach Veen and Fulford, both going deep for their first big league homers. Zeen led off the bottom of the third with a drive to right and Fulford went 433 feet into the left field bleachers to open the sixth.

The pair of solo shots were the only blemish on Nationals starter Jake Irvin's line, as he delivered the second consecutive quality start for the team at Coors Field, following MacKenzie Gore’s six innings of two-run ball in Saturday’s series opener. Irvin allowed three hits and walked none while striking out nine over 6 1/3 innings.

“I saw what [Gore] did, thought it looked kind of fun, so I tried to follow it up,” Irvin said.

In his only other Coors Field start, on June 23, 2024, Irvin struck out a career-high 10 and pitched six innings of one-run ball.

“The advice I was given last year [was] attack with your stuff -- don’t change anything in the game plan, and go right at guys,” Irvin said. “You might give up your long ball here or there, but at the end of the day, we're going to put up runs too. So just attack and stay in the zone.”

Irvin is 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA (13 1/3 IP, 2 ER) over his last two starts, allowing just one walk while striking out 15.

After using four relievers Saturday, Irvin offered the length the Nationals needed to keep their ‘pen fresh for the nightcap.

“That feels like my job,” Irvin said. “MacKenzie is elite. Punching out 13, 14, that's his game. My game is length. I try to get as deep as I can for these guys. On days where I know the bullpen might need it a little more, you dig a little bit deeper and see what you can do for the team.”

The Nats used Jose Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan for the final 2 2/3 innings, and the two shut down the Rockies, allowing a combined one hit and one walk to preserve the one-run lead. They’d pitched 2 1/3 innings Saturday, allowing a combined three runs in the one-run win.

“That was almost like déjà vu there,” Finnegan said. “But regardless of how the game has gone prior to coming in, you treat it the same. You separate it. You execute one pitch at a time.”

Finnegan has used that approach to ascend the Nationals’ leaderboard. On Sunday he notched his 300th appearance, 300th inning, 300th strikeout and 96th save, making him second since the team moved to Washington in 2005, trailing only Chad Cordero’s 113. Jeff Reardon has the Expos/Nationals record with 152.

“It's crazy to think that I'm second -- I feel like I just got here,” Finnegan said. “Saves is a team stat. You got to be put in that situation. You're just coming in to get the last three outs of the game, but the defense and the hitting and the starting pitching and the other relief is what led you to that point. You just got to keep it going and finish it off.”

The nightcap featured a promising start from Brad Lord -- whom Martinez described as “very poised” and “something special” -- allowing two runs and striking out five over four innings, while the bullpen allowed one run. But an offense that put up nothing but goose eggs after Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single in the first couldn’t complete the sweep.

“Obviously we can't go out there and put up a dozen every night, but we’d like to score more than we scored tonight, because we didn't like the outcome,” Lowe said after his 3-for-4 night at the plate. “We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard, and obviously didn't perform to that standard in Game 2.”