Jake Irvin responded from his worst outing of the season to pitch six solid innings and CJ Abrams smacked a two-run homer to help the Washington Nationals complete a four-game sweep of the host Miami Marlins, winning 7-2 on Monday night.
Irvin (2-2), who gave up four hits, struck out three and didn’t issue a walk, was unscathed until Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s two-out, two-run home run in the sixth. Dylan Floro and Matt Barnes completed the combined four-hitter.
Irvin allowed six runs and 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings in Wednesday’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But this marked his second time taking a shutout into the sixth inning in a two-week span.
The Marlins, with the worst record in the National League, have lost seven consecutive games. The Nationals improved to .500.
Miami starter Trevor Rogers (0-4) had another five-inning outing, giving up three runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three.
All seven Washington runs crossed the plate with two outs. The Nationals scored 30 runs across the final three games of the series.
Abrams’ seventh homer of the season opened the scoring in the third. It was his first home run in eight games, though he has an extra-base hit in three consecutive games.
The Nationals pushed the lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Jesse Winker walked with the bases loaded in the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Marlins had two outs before Vidal Brujan’s single and Chisholm’s fourth blast of the season.
The Nationals went right to work in a four-run seventh, including Joey Meneses’ RBI double followed by Ildemaro Vargas’ run-scoring single.
The Marlins used three pitchers in the seventh and five relievers in total. Miami pitchers issued more walks (four) than they had strikeouts (three) in the game.
Vargas, who was the game’s only player with more than one hit, finished with two singles, while four of the other five Nationals hits went for extra bases.
–Field Level Media