The Washington Nationals will shoot for their second straight series win when they host the Detroit Tigers on Thursday evening.
After dropping seven consecutive series, Washington took two of three games from the Los Angeles Angels last weekend. On Wednesday, the Nationals rallied for six runs in the eighth inning to stun the Tigers 9-4 after losing the opener of the day-night doubleheader 11-2.
Washington will send right-hander Jake Irvin (6-3, 4.73 ERA) to face left-hander Dietrich Enns (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in the finale of a three-game set.
Irvin will look to bounce back from his worst outing of the season. On Friday in Anaheim, Calif., he allowed nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits — including three home runs — in 4 1/3 innings. He also walked four batters but escaped with a no-decision as Washington won 15-9.
“Making quality pitches early in at-bats and getting the leadoff guy out (are crucial), and I don’t think I did that to just about anybody tonight,” Irvin said postgame. “Those are the things that come back to bite you in a game like this … and it’s something that we’ll work on emphasizing going forward.”
Irvin, 28, is 1-1 with a 5.19 ERA in two career starts against the Tigers.
Enns, 34, earned a second start this season after throwing five scoreless innings in his Tigers debut on June 26 against the Athletics.
He has appeared in 12 major league games (two of them starts) in parts of 2017, 2021 and 2025. Before last week, his only big-league start came on Aug. 10, 2017, for the Minnesota Twins against the Milwaukee Brewers. His 2,877-day gap between starts was one of the longest this century.
Against the Athletics, he allowed one hit and two walks while striking out four.
“He kept them off-balance going in, up, down if he needed to, changeups down,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “He was in the zone with everything, which makes it a lot easier.”
While the Tigers ended Wednesday on a down note by blowing a late lead, the day went better earlier as they won the opener and got good news about the All-Star Game.
For the first time since 2007, the Tigers will have three starters on the American League All-Star team. Second baseman Gleyber Torres and outfielders Riley Greene and Javier Baez were elected by fans.
On Wednesday, Greene smacked two three-run homers in the first game, and Rogers and Spencer Torkelson also went deep. It was Greene’s third consecutive game with a home run and fourth multi-homer game this season.
“He’s Riley Greene,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “There’s these little bursts of huge performance like we’ve seen. There’s very rare downturns. He’s a guy who brings it every day. … He faces the toughest matchups in the biggest moments in the middle of our order and continues to get a good pitch to hit.”
Greene almost added a homer in the ninth inning of the second game, but Nationals center fielder Jacob Young made a leaping catch at the fence to rob him.
Nathaniel Lowe’s bases-loaded triple keyed the six-run eighth inning as the Nationals rallied to earn the split. Lowe also had an RBI single, Josh Bell had three hits and three RBIs, and Daylen Lile extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
“It takes all the coaches and all the players to really lock in and clean up a second game against the best record in the league,” Lowe said of Detroit. “This is one we should hang our hat on. And then ideally rest up tonight and come back and try to take a series tomorrow.”
–Field Level Media
