It’s been a brutally hot summer here, but it hasn’t rained all that much. At least, not enough to have a major impact on Nationals games. That may change over the next three days, with what’s left of Hurricane Debby making its way up the coast and projected to impact the region from later this evening through sometime Friday. The Nats already announced Thursday’s series finale against the Giants has been moved from 4:05 p.m. to 12:05 p.m. in hopes of beating the rain. It remains to be seen if that proactive move will actually pay off. Fingers crossed.

First up, though, is tonight’s regularly scheduled 6:45 p.m. game, and the Nats face a daunting challenge in Blake Snell. The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner no-hit the Reds five days ago, the first time in his career he tossed a complete game. And that was merely the culmination of an utterly dominant stretch: Over his last five starts, Snell has allowed two runs on eight hits, striking out 41 over 33 innings. Yes, the Nats had a big night at the plate Tuesday. That may have no impact on their performance tonight.

Jake Irvin will need to be the best version of himself to give his team a chance tonight. The right-hander got off to a rough start in last outing, allowing three early runs to the Brewers. But he salvaged it and wound up allowing only one more run in 5 2/3 innings. He faced the Giants twice last season and was excellent: three runs, 10 hits, 14 strikeouts over 13 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Rain arriving, 80 degrees, wind 10 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Alex Call
1B Juan Yepez
DH Harold Ramírez
2B Ildemaro Vargas
LF James Wood
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young
3B Trey Lipscomb

After a rough start to the season on South Capitol Street, the Nationals have actually played better at home than on the road recently. Their .460 winning percentage at Nationals Park outpaces their .441 mark on the road. That bodes well for the remainder of the year, during which the Nats play 31 of their final 53 games at home.

Tonight started their longest homestand of the season, a 10-game stretch against the Brewers, Giants and Angels. To get to benchmarks of an improving season – such as a better overall record (71-91) and better home record (34-47) than last year – having a strong homestand over these next 10 days would go a long way.

But in the opener against the Brewers, who they took two of three against in Milwaukee right before the All-Star break, the Nats came up short to lose their fifth straight game by a score of 8-3 in front of 22,132 fans in D.C.

Jake Irvin appeared to be the right man to send to the mound to begin this three-game set. Although he struggled to end the first half, including being charged with seven runs (six earned) in four innings against these very Brewers at American Family Field, the rest during the break seemed to benefit him entering the second half. He allowed only four runs with 12 strikeouts over 12 ⅓ innings against the Reds and Cardinals, with the Nats winning both of those games.

However, Irvin wasn’t as efficient tonight, leading to an exit with two outs in the sixth due to a high pitch count.

The Nationals just finished a brutal stretch. Over the last week-plus, they have been no-hit by Dylan Cease, lost back-to-back games in walk-off fashion, suffered a club-worst 17-0 loss, traded away three of their most productive players and been swept twice. Now they enter the dog days of August.

After sweeping the Marlins on June 16, the Nats were one game under .500. Since then, they've gone 14-24 with only three days off, plus the All-Star break. But with yesterday’s day off, they have an off-day in seven of the remaining nine weeks. That hopefully will help them finish the season strong.

What would also help them to start this 10-game homestand is another strong series against the Brewers, against whom the Nats won two of three in Milwaukee right before the break. Jake Irvin, who starts tonight, took the mound in that final game looking for the sweep, but was charged with seven runs (six earned) in four innings while taking a loss. But the right-hander has been solid to start his second half of the season, allowing only four runs with 12 strikeouts over 12 ⅓ innings against the Reds and Cardinals, with the Nats winning both of those games.

Frankie Montas makes his second start against the Nats in the past two weeks, this time as a member of the Brew Crew. The right-hander was traded from the Reds to the Brewers for two players on Tuesday before the deadline. This will be his first start for Milwaukee after the Nats got to him for seven runs in 4 ⅔ innings in his penultimate start with Cincinnati opening the second half.

Note that tonight’s game is exclusively on Apple TV+ for a national broadcast.

ST. LOUIS – When Davey Martinez sent Harold Ramírez to the plate to pinch-hit for Jesse Winker in the top of the sixth tonight, it made perfect baseball sense. The Nationals, who had squandered bases-loaded opportunities each of the previous two innings, had yet another opportunity with the bags full in a tight ballgame. And with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol summoning left-hander Matthew Liberatore from the bullpen, of course Martinez would have the right-handed Ramírez bat for the left-handed Winker.

Ramírez proceeded to deliver the clutch hit the Nats had been seeking all night, sparking a seven-run rally that turned a tight ballgame at Busch Stadium into an eventual 14-3 rout. But it turns out the pinch-hit move by Martinez, though purely strategic in the moment, carried far more significance than anyone realized at the time.

Winker, who turned a minor league contract and a spring training invitation into a .793 OPS and a regular spot batting third for the Nats, was traded to the Mets for pitching prospect Tyler Stuart, the club officially announced Sunday morning.

Winker, who is due to become a free agent at season’s end and looked like the team's most logical candidate to be dealt prior to Tuesday’s major league deadline, wound up getting dealt in-game to a division rival for Stuart, a 24-year-old right-hander who was rated New York's No. 17 prospect by MLB Pipeline. The 6-foot-9 starter had a 3.96 ERA, 1.250 WHIP and 90 strikeouts with only 20 walks in 84 innings this season at Double-A Binghamton. He led all qualified full-season starters across the minor leagues last season with a 2.20 ERA split between Single-A and Double-A.

The trade couldn't officially be announced until both clubs received and approved medical info, which didn't happen until Sunday morning. But Winker was informed of the pending deal during the seventh inning Saturday night and spent the rest of the game making travel preparations while also returning to the dugout to enjoy the win with his now-former teammates.

ST. LOUIS – If the Nationals’ response to getting no-hit Thursday was to score 10 runs Friday, what exactly does that mean we should expect tonight out of them? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Nats legitimately had a good night at the plate in the series opener against the Cardinals. It’s not just the 10 runs they scored. It’s the 11 hits, four of which went for extra bases. And it’s the eight walks they drew, a very uncommon total for this swing-happy bunch.

So they’ll look to use the same approach tonight against Kyle Gibson, who faces the Nationals for the second time this month. He managed to give up only three runs in five-plus innings July 7 in D.C., but that came via nine hits and two walks, including three doubles combined by Jesse Winker and Juan Yepez. Speaking of Yepez, he’s now slashing .375/.423/.609 in 17 games since joining the team, consistently providing sorely needed quality at-bats.

The Nationals are facing a familiar foe in Gibson, but the same isn’t true on the flip side. Jake Irvin didn’t pitch against St. Louis in that previous series, so perhaps that plays to his advantage. The right-hander needed a good outing in his return from the All-Star break after a rough stretch to close out an otherwise excellent first half. And he responded with seven innings of two-run, zero-strikeout ball against the Reds, an encouraging sign heading into tonight’s start.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:15 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 79 degrees, wind 7 mph right field to left field

The formula that won Saturday night’s game wasn’t going to be plausible today. The Nationals simply couldn’t afford another ultra-abbreviated outing from their starter, putting even more strain on an already strained bullpen.

So Jake Irvin did his part, rediscovering the form that made him one of the league’s breakout pitchers in the first half of the season. And then James Wood made sure that pitching performance would count with one huge late swing.

Wood’s three-run homer off reliever Justin Wilson turned a tie game in the bottom of the eighth into a 5-2 Nats victory and a three-game sweep of the Reds to kick off the season’s second half in decidedly upbeat fashion.

"We're right there with them," Wood said of a Nationals team that has won five of six and currently sits four games out of a wide-open Wild Card race. "We're trying to make a push, too."

Wood stepped to the plate with two out and two on in the eighth, Cincinnati manager David Bell summoning Wilson specifically to face him. The rookie had batted against the veteran left-hander Saturday night, grounding out on the fifth pitch of that at-bat. He wasted no time today, aggressively going after Wilson’s first-pitch fastball and driving it 404 feet to left for his second career homer.

The Nationals have already won back-to-back series. Now they have a shot at a rare series sweep if they can beat the Reds again in this afternoon’s finale.

Though they’ve somehow managed to win a pair of games in the last week in which their starter didn’t even reach the third inning, that’s probably not a formula for sustained success. So it would behoove Jake Irvin to be good today, and to give his team some length so Davey Martinez doesn’t have rely too heavily on a bullpen that’s already worn down only two games into the second half of the season.

Irvin is coming off back-to-back rough starts, though, which took some of the luster off his breakthrough first half. The right-hander’s issue in those games against the Mets and Brewers: He was hit hard, to the tune of 13 runs on 18 hits over 10 innings. That was a pretty stark drop-off after back-to-back starts in which he surrendered only one hit.

The Nationals face another left-hander today in Andrew Abbott. He’s been solid in 40 career starts, but the Nats did get to him for six runs in 5 2/3 innings last August in Cincinnati. The University of Virginia alum has walked 22 batters over his last 37 1/3 innings, so patience is a virtue against him this afternoon.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. CINCINNATI REDS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 89 degrees, wind 5 mph out to left field

The All-Star Game has come and gone, but we’ve still got one more day left in the All-Star break. No baseball will be played today. Come back Friday evening for that, when the Nationals open of a six-game homestand against the Reds and Padres.

The halfway point of the season has already long since come and gone. The Nats have played 97 games, so remarkably there are only 65 left. But this will be the start of the ceremonial second half of the season, and there is plenty to still take place before the 2024 campaign is over.

Here’s a look at the top storylines the Nationals figure to face over the next 2 1/2 months …

HOW GOOD IS WOOD?
James Wood has now spent two weeks in the big leagues, and there was a big difference between those two weeks. Week 1 saw the top prospect take the world by storm, crushing balls well over 100 mph, drawing six walks with only seven strikeouts and producing a .320/.452/.480 slash line. Week 2 saw the league start to figure him out and saw Wood start to get out of his comfort zone, striking out 13 times without drawing a walk and slashing .179/.207/.179. It’s far too soon to draw any real conclusions, but 2 1/2 months from now, we should have a really good idea just how good Wood is. Can he make the necessary adjustments at the plate and start consistently squaring up the ball again? Can he start to look more comfortable in left field? Is he ready to be the face of this franchise, or is that process going to take a bit more time?

CAN THE YOUNG PITCHING HOLD UP?
There was so much to like about the Nationals’ young starting pitchers from April through June, but we started to see some cracks in the foundation the last two weeks. The question: Are these guys starting to wear down, and is that going to continue in the second half? It would not be surprising if that happens to the least experienced of the group, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz. But MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin have been through this before, and both should know how to right their ships and stay strong through September. It’s going to be a real test for these guys, but it’s going to inform us a lot about their long-term viability.

The All-Star break offers a time for reflection, a chance to hit the pause button and consider everything that’s happened over the last 3 1/2 months. It’s a lot easier to think about the big picture when you don’t have a game to worry about from the night before or another coming the following day.

And when you take a step back and consider the big picture, you find a lot to be pleased about the Nationals’ first half of the season. There were breakthrough performances, the arrival of several rookies including one of the top prospects in the sport and ultimately a better record (44-53) than at this same point one year ago (39-58).

Which isn’t to say everything went swimmingly in NatsTown. There were disappointing performances from a number of players, disruptive injuries and sloppy play at times. This is a team that felt at times like it could be good enough to win more games than it lost, but the record suggests there’s still a way to go before that feels plausible.

So before we move on to what could be a very entertaining – and newsworthy – second half, let’s look back at the things that went right for the Nationals in the first half and the things that went wrong …

RIGHT: THE YOUNG STARTING PITCHERS
Even the most optimistic club official or fan couldn’t have predicted how well the quartet of Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz would pitch. (Many wouldn’t have even predicted Parker and Herz would be in the big leagues to begin with.) But this turned into the most important story of the first half. Combine their stats, and those four young starters delivered a 3.91 ERA and 1.238 WHIP while issuing only 2.5 walks per nine innings and surrendered slightly more than one homer per nine innings. And those numbers looked even better a couple weeks ago, before all four labored in their final outings leading up to the break. If they can return refreshed and get back to what they did throughout April, May and June, the Nats will have the makings of a strong rotation for years to come.

MILWAUKEE – In a first half packed with encouraging, unexpected performances from the Nationals’ young pitchers, Jake Irvin stood at the top of the pack.

More than anyone else on the staff, the 27-year-old took the kind of forward strides that forced any skeptics out there to reconsider how he might just fit into the long-term plan, looking far more like a frontline starter than a back-end innings-eater.

Two bad starts to close out the half – capped by today’s slog during a 9-3 loss to the Brewers – don’t diminish everything Irvin did the previous three months. But they will leave a bit of a sour taste in the right-hander’s mouth as he heads home for the All-Star break.

"Look at the big picture, and see that it was a good first half," he said. "But just let these last two starts be a reminder that there's still work to be done. And we're going to get better and move forward with this."

One of the National League’s most consistently effective starters so far this season, worthy of an All-Star selection even though he didn’t get one, Irvin was roughed up for seven runs (six earned) in only four innings this afternoon. That came on the heels of a six-run outing last week against the Mets, these two duds turning Irvin’s 2.80 ERA into a 3.49 ERA in short order.

MILWAUKEE – It’s been an eventful weekend here, to say the least. Friday night’s win was solid. Saturday afternoon’s win was wild. And the postgame trade of Hunter Harvey threw an unexpected wrench into the proceedings. And at the end of all that, the Nationals now take the field this afternoon with a chance to sweep the first-place Brewers and go into the All-Star break on a decidedly high note.

The Nats will hope to keep the good offensive vibes going, this time against right-hander Colin Rae. The 34-year-old journeyman is enjoying a solid season, but he’s not a big strikeout guy and he has allowed 14 homers in 99 1/3 innings. If the Nationals can hit the ball in the air on a warm, muggy day here, they should have a chance to score some runs.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for the first-half finale, and it’s been a fantastic first half for the right-hander, aside from an ugly loss to the Mets last week. Irvin will hope to turn that around, pitch more like himself and go into the break on his own personal high note.

Update: The Brewers are actually not starting Rae today. Instead, it will be left-hander Rob Zastryzny opening a bullpen game.

Update II: The Nationals have recalled right-hander Amos Willingham from Triple-A Rochester to take Harvey's roster spot.

NEW YORK – What Jake Irvin did against the Mets on Independence Day was nothing short of special. In what turned out to be a career highlight, the right-hander struck out eight over eight shutout innings of one-hit, one-walk ball on 99 pitches.

The task for the 27-year-old tonight: A similar performance to provide the Nationals bullpen some much-needed rest and give his team a chance to win for just the second time since that spectacular outing.

Eight scoreless innings is a lot to ask anyone, nonetheless a young pitcher facing the same team in back-to-back starts. And while Irvin was able to provide the Nats some length, he and the bats weren’t able to overcome a rough second inning and another dominant start by Jose Quintana in a 7-4 loss to the Mets in front of an announced crowd of 31,243 at Citi Field.

“He wasn't as sharp," said manager Davey Martinez. "His breaking ball wasn't as sharp. He fell behind a couple of hitters and made some mistakes just by location. But all in all, he gave us some innings that we needed. So it's just one of those days.”

Irvin only gave up one hit and one walk over eight innings last week against the Mets. He matched that in the first three batters he faced tonight, including a two-bag error on a pickoff attempt to move leadoff man Francisco Lindor to third base. But he got out of the first with a comebacker and strikeout, needing 21 pitches to complete the frame.

NEW YORK – After a 3-5 homestand, the Nationals cannot get back to a .500 record before the All-Star break next week. But they’ll have this six-game road tip to end the first half of the season and get close before a much-needed break. For reference, these Nationals are five games better than they were at this point in the season last year.

And look who they’ll face to start this road trip: An old friend in the Mets, who the Nats split a four-game series with in D.C. last week. And look who will take the mound against the Mets: Jake Irvin, who pitched one of the best games we’ve seen from a Nationals pitcher on Independence Day. The right-hander struck out eight over eight innings of one-hit, one-walk ball. Now he’ll have the challenge of facing the same New York lineup in back-to-back starts.

And look who will take the mound for the Mets: Jose Quintana. who opposed Irvin last week. The veteran left-hander held the Nats scoreless over seven innings with four hits, three walks and only one strikeout.

Do we have another pitchers’ duel on-deck for the opener of this three-game series or will the offenses exact their respective revenge?

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 13 mph out to center field

When the All-Star selection show aired Sunday evening and only one Nationals player – CJ Abrams – was unveiled, it shouldn’t have caught anyone by surprise. The Nats are a one-All-Star kind of team and have been for several years now.

For the first time in a while, though, they legitimately had three candidates with strong cases to make the roster.

Abrams clearly was deserving of his first career selection. His .859 OPS currently ranks seventh among all National League players, and he’s one of only four NL players with at least 14 homers and 14 stolen bases at the moment, along with Elly De La Cruz, Francisco Lindor and Shohei Ohtani.

But you know who else was deserving? Jake Irvin. His 2.80 ERA ranks fifth in the NL, his 1.000 WHIP ranks fourth and his 106 innings pitched rank eighth.

And you know who else was also deserving? Kyle Finnegan. His 23 saves rank second in the NL, while his 2.17 ERA and 0.964 WHIP rank fourth among all regular closers.

More than three months into this season, it has become clear the Nationals trust Jake Irvin. And with the stars perfectly aligned today, they trusted their young right-hander more than ever before.

And thanks to one – and only one – big hit from his teammates, Irvin and the Nats emerged victorious on Independence Day in the nation’s capital.

Irvin completed eight innings for the first time in his career, allowing one hit, one walk and nothing else on a day when the Nationals bullpen was severely depleted and needed everything it could get from the 27-year-old starter. And when Jesse Winker blasted a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the eighth, they had the only run they needed to pull off an inspired, 1-0 victory over the Mets.

"That was unbelievable, it really was," manager Davey Martinez said. "We definitely needed that."

Held to four singles by New York starter Jose Quintana, the Nationals finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth against reliever Adrian Houser. With a right-hander finally on the mound, Martinez sent Winker up to pinch-hit for Harold Ramírez, then watched the veteran blast a 1-0 curveball to right-center for the day’s first and only run and some long-awaited support for his starting pitcher.

Boy, did the Nationals need that win Wednesday night. After dropping five straight to the Mets to begin the season, then falling behind 5-0, they stormed back to win 7-5 thanks to the offensive heroics of Luis García Jr. and James Wood and a really impressive job by an overworked bullpen.

The domino effect of that, though: You have to assume Robert Garcia, Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan are all going to be unavailable for this morning’s series finale, none of them able to pitch for the fourth straight day. If this game is close late, Davey Martinez is going to have to rely on some different relievers for a change.

A long start out of Jake Irvin would help the cause tremendously, and Irvin has shown an ability to do that this year. He has completed at least six innings 12 times in 17 starts, and he has reached the seventh twice. If he can keep his pitch count manageable, you wonder if Martinez will push the right-hander a bit more than usual today.

After finally facing a right-hander Wednesday, the Nats will be going up against a lefty again today in veteran Jose Quintana. Given how well Wood has handled southpaws so far, you have to think he’ll remain in a prominent spot in the lineup.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 11:05 a.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv, MLB Network (outside D.C. market)
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 88 degrees, wind 5 mph out to center field

Tuesday’s news on Josiah Gray and Cade Cavalli wasn’t good, certainly not in Gray’s case. The Nationals’ Opening Day starter, who landed on the injured list after two outings with a right flexor strain, has been shut down during the final stages of his rehab assignment after a recurrence of elbow discomfort and is scheduled to visit specialist Keith Meister in Dallas during the All-Star break.

We won’t know until then whether Gray’s injury has become far more significant and requires surgery, or whether he managed to avoid the worst and just needs more time off. Either way, it’s clear he won’t be pitching in the big leagues anytime soon, and his 2024 season could end up a complete wash.

There’s still reasonable hope for Cavalli pitching major league games for the Nationals in the relatively near future, though his return from Tommy John surgery isn’t as imminent as it once looked after the right-hander came down with the flu last week and now needs to start building up his arm yet again. Both Cavalli and Gray’s rehab assignments have been shut down.

This would have qualified as terrible news back in April. The Nats absolutely were counting on both Gray and Cavalli to be a big part of their 2024 rotation, and then for years to come after that.

It’s still bad news, but it may not be as damaging to the club’s short-term and long-term hopes as most would’ve thought when the season began. For that, we can thank the remarkable and unexpected ascension of three other young starting pitchers who have dazzled so far in the majors this year: Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Josiah Gray got the Opening Day assignment based off his 2023 campaign. MacKenzie Gore got the hype based off his reputation and knack for the occasional dominant outing. But the member of the Nationals rotation who had the best spring and most looked poised to break out might well have been Jake Irvin.

Three months later, the right-hander might just be the best pitcher on the staff. And in a couple weeks, he might just end up representing the team at the All-Star Game.

As the season’s unofficial second half got under way this afternoon with Game 82, Irvin took the mound at Tropicana Field and kept doing what he did throughout the first half. With six superb innings of one-hit ball, he led the way and bought time for his teammates to get their bats going, which they finally did during a late explosion that turned a close game against the Rays into an 8-1 rout.

Irvin was stellar again, overcoming an early (and unlucky) home run surrendered to hold Tampa Bay hitless the rest of the way. And thanks to the kind of run support that hasn’t been provided regularly enough, he emerged with his sixth win while lowering his ERA to 3.03 (ninth-best in the National League) and WHIP to 1.061 (seventh-best in the NL).

"When he first got to spring training, he was impressive," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "And he's been great for us this year."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – We’ve still got more than two weeks to go until the All-Star break, but technically speaking the second half of the season begins today for the Nationals, who have now played 81 games. At 38-43, they’re probably a little better than most people expected, though they also have to acknowledge they could be even better given how good the pitching has been.

They’re also mired in a four-game losing streak and would love to turn that around this afternoon with a win over the Rays. The good news: They’ve got arguably their most consistent starter on the mound in Jake Irvin. The right-hander enters 5-6 with a 3.13 ERA and 1.087 WHIP. Most impressively, he has allowed two or fewer earned runs over six or more innings in 10 of his 16 starts. That’s consistency for you right there, the good kind.

At the plate, the Nats have to do more than they did during Friday night’s 3-1 loss. We’re waiting to find out about Jesse Winker’s status after he tweaked his right knee in the first inning Friday. If he can’t go, that’s a pretty notable loss in the heart of the lineup, and it will be up to others to pick up the slack against right-hander Aaron Civale, who enters with a 5.20 ERA and hasn’t been credited with a win since April 9.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TAMPA BAY RAYS
Where: Tropicana Field
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
LF Jesse Winker
1B Joey Meneses
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Harold Ramírez
C Keibert Ruiz
3B Nick Senzel
CF Jacob Young

DENVER – Jake Irvin had never pitched at Coors Field before. The Nationals’ trip here last season came right in between the right-hander’s major league debut in D.C. and his second start in San Francisco, so he had no personal experience to go off as he prepared for Sunday’s outing against the Rockies.

So Irvin sought out a teammate with loads of experience pitching at high altitude: Patrick Corbin, who has made 13 career starts here. (All three as a member of the Nationals were quality starts, to boot.)

As he stood at his locker following a dominant performance late Sunday afternoon, Irvin noted the words of wisdom he received from Corbin.

“Obviously the elements are a little different than any of the other parks we play in,” he said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Pat, because coming in here I asked him – he had pitched in Arizona for a while, so he played here a lot. He said you can’t really be intimidated by the ballpark and the conditions. Just pitch your game. That advice really helped.”

Irvin certainly stuck to his usual gameplan, relying primarily on fastballs and curveballs. And he executed that plan brilliantly, striking out 10 over six innings of one-run ball to keep the game close before the Nats rallied to win 2-1 in the ninth.