May 3, 2023 – Nats 2, Cubs 1

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202305030.shtml

 

Time: 2:27

Attendance: 15,903

In our usual seats (Section 313, Row E, Seats 18-19)

 

Washington starter Jake Irvin got off to a somewhat inauspicious start in his major league debut, plunking Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner with his very first pitch of the game. Hoerner stole second and wound up scoring on a two-out single by RF Seiya Suzuki. Irvin settled down over the next three frames, allowing just two more men to reach base. He seemed to tire in the 5th, giving up his third and fourth walks of the game before being lifted with one out. Andrés Machado came in and induced a double play with his first pitch to get out of the jam.

 

Meanwhile, the Nationals had a promising start to the bottom of the second, with runners on the corners after singles by Joey Meneses and Jeimer Candelario. Dominic Smith, however, promptly grounded into a double play, scoring Meneses but eliminating any possibility of a big inning. They had more chances later against Cubs starter Marcus Stroman, with multiple runners in the 3rd and 5th, but were unable to get any of them home.

 

The Nats finally untied the score after the stretch, as the visitors lifted Stroman and brought in Adbert Alzolay. Lane Thomas led off with a triple, and CJ Abrams promptly singled him in.

 

Washington’s bullpen got the job done after Irvin’s departure, with scoreless innings from Machado, CJ Edwards Jr., Hunter Harvey, and Kyle Finnegan. Chicago made things interesting in the ninth when the first two batters singled, but the Nats recorded one out on an attempted sacrifice bunt, then turned their fourth double play of the game to send at least half of the crowd home happy.

 

The weather wasn’t the greatest, but it could have been worse. It was 54 at game time and really didn’t get much colder, but it felt rawer than that. The wind kicked up occasionally, although not as often as I had feared. It was raining hard enough when the game started that many of us remained on the concourse rather than going directly to our seats, but it stopped after the first inning or so. Given some of our recent experiences with Nationals Park concessions, we stopped at Subway after getting off Metro and brought our subs into the park.