Nationals 'a little bit flat' as off-day slows hot stretch

WASHINGTON -- The starting pitching that had been dominant was hit and the bats that had been doing damage were quieted. The Nationals’ momentum of winning eight of their last nine games and three in a row was shut out in the series opener against the D-backs.

Washington was held scoreless, 5-0, by Arizona on Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Stifled by six strong innings from D-backs right-hander Slade Cecconi, it was the first game in which the Nats had not scored a run since May 28 at Atlanta.

“It seems like every day we have a day off, we come out just a little bit flat,” said manager Dave Martinez. “But I watched that kid pitch today and I went back and watched some of his pitches that we were taking -- his ball really did have some good movement. … For me, I’m going to go back and try to flush this one. We’re playing well, I’m not going to dwell on it. Just come back and get ready to play tomorrow and try to go 1-0 tomorrow.”

The Nationals knew they were going to encounter an energetic, athletic opponent in Arizona. Their starting pitching had been able to limit offense, though, pitching to a league-leading 1.41 ERA since June 6. As part of that rotation, right-hander Jake Irvin had gone 3-1 and reached the six-inning mark in his last five starts (1.48 ERA), including a one-run outing most recently in Detroit on June 12.

But Irvin’s third career outing against Arizona had trouble early. Irvin, who had not allowed more than two free bases in a single game this season, issued a lead-off walk to Corbin Carroll. Ketel Marte did quick damage in the second at-bat with a homer off a curveball in a 2-2 count that put the Nats in a 2-0 hole.

“Today, he fell behind a lot of hitters,” said Martinez. “He walked the first guy of the game, so that’s not usually what he does. He was a little off. But he hung in there, he battled.”

Irvin bounced back to hold the D-backs scoreless in the next three frames, but his pitch count reached 84 by the end of the fourth inning. In the fifth, a lead-off double by Geraldo Perdomo was followed by a Carroll RBI triple and a Marte sacrifice fly to double the deficit.

“I can’t really pinpoint it,” said Irvin. “Just didn’t have great command of my fastball tonight. It’s not a recipe for success, and I put myself in some really bad counts.”

Irvin exited his 15th start of the season after allowing four runs off eight hits and four walks. He struck out a pair of batters across 97 pitches. Irvin had not given up as many runs since May 17 at the Phillies.

“Mentality-wise, everything felt pretty good, so I imagine it’s not something like that,” said Irvin. “It’s probably something mechanical, so I’ll go back and look at that tomorrow. But overall, I just have to be more competitive than that.”

While Irvin looked for a rhythm, Cecconi kept the Nationals bats from providing run support. In their first time facing the 24-year-old righty, the Nats struck out six times, did not draw a walk and recorded just three hits across six innings.

“He was outstanding tonight,” said Jesse Winker, who was the only Nationals player to record an extra-base hit in his return from right knee stiffness. “He was commanding both sides, up and down. He’s very talented and he had a great night tonight, so hats off to him.”

After outscoring the Marlins, 15-2, in the weekend sweep, the Nats were 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position against Arizona.

“We’ve just got to come back tomorrow,” said Martinez. “We’re going to be aggressive in the zone. But today early on, we didn’t chase; [Cecconi] came after us. We’ve got to get aggressive in the zone, stay in the middle of the field and start getting something going. We’ve just got to get guys on base.”