The Washington Nationals will kick off a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants tonight in San Francisco. The Nationals are scheduled to send right-handed pitcher Jake Irvin, who has an 8-6 record and a 4.89 ERA. The Giants are scheduled to send lefty Matt Gage to the mound.

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On Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park, the Nationals were defeated by the Athletics 6-0. Jacob Lopez delivered a brilliant performance on the mound, pitching 7.2 scoreless innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts while allowing only three hits.

Mitchell Parker, struggled through 5.0 innings, giving up six hits, four earned runs, three walks, and striking out four, and giving up one home run. Parker threw 85 pitches, and 52 of them were strikes.

Here is our full game recap from Thursday afternoon.

On Deck…

Tomorrow, the Nationals will play game two of their three-game series against the Giants. The Nationals are scheduled to send right-handed pitcher Brad Lord, who has a 2-6 record and a 3.42 ERA. The Giants are scheduled to send lefty Carson Whisenhunt, who has a 1-0 record and a 4.35 ERA.

In the hole…

On Sunday, the Nationals will wrap up their three-game series against the Giants with the scheduled first pitch at 4:05 p.m. EDT. The Nationals are scheduled to send left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore, who has a 4-12 record and a 4.29 ERA, to the mound and are scheduled to face right-handed pitcher Justin Verlander with a 1-8 record and a 4.29 ERA.

Washington has scored 59 runs in the ninth inning, the most in the National League and second-most in all of Major League Baseball, with only the Athletics ahead at 68. When it comes to ninth-inning hits, the Nationals’ total of 99 ranks second in the National League and third in MLB, behind the Rockies (101) and the Athletics (102).

Daylen Lile has compiled a .477 slugging percentage (including four doubles, three triples, and a home run) along with a .787 OPS, while batting .277 (18-for-65) over his past 18 games. Since July 12, Lile leads all National League rookies in triples (3), and also ranks second in slugging (.477), OPS (.787), extra-base hits (tied for second with 8), and RBI (tied for second with 10).

Over his last seven games, Lile is hitting .320 (8-for-25) with two doubles, a triple, four RBI, a hit-by-pitch, a walk, and four runs scored. He has reached base in six of those seven games and recorded a hit in five of them.

Together, Keibert Ruiz, Riley Adams, and Drew Millas have thrown out 29 attempted base stealers—matching the Major League lead with both the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets (each with 29).

The Washington Nationals also rank second in MLB with 33 total caught stealings by pitchers and catchers, just behind the Red Sox (34). Adams has set a personal best this season, catching 12 out of 36 runners trying to steal.

On August 2 at Nationals Park, Irvin took the loss against Milwaukee, allowing five runs on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts over 4.0 innings.

vs. San Francisco
Irvin makes his fifth career start—and second of the season—today against the Giants. In his last outing against them on May 24 at Nationals Park, he matched a career high by throwing 8.0 scoreless innings. This will be his second career start at Oracle Park, where he earned his first Major League win on May 8, 2023, tossing 6.1 scoreless frames with five strikeouts.

Across four career starts against San Francisco, Irvin owns a 3-1 record with a 2.77 ERA (8 ER/26.0 IP) and 25 strikeouts.

Give Me the Ball
Irvin is tied for ninth in the National League with 130.2 innings pitched this season. Since the start of 2024, his 318.1 innings rank tied for seventh-most in Major League Baseball.

Get Through the First
This season, Irvin has struggled in the opening frame, posting a 9.39 ERA (24 ER/23.0 IP) and a .323 opponents’ average in first innings. From the second inning on, however, he has recorded a 4.08 ERA (47 ER/103.2 IP) with opponents batting just .237 against him.

Winning Ways
Irvin leads the Nationals with eight wins, and the team is 12-11 in his 23 starts—the best winning percentage among Washington’s starting pitchers.

San Francisco just wrapped up a 4-2 road trip, securing 2-1 series wins against both the Mets in New York and the Pirates in Pittsburgh. This marks their first winning road trip since the season’s opening stretch, when they went 2-1 in Cincinnati and swept Houston 3-0 from March 27 to April 2.

During the recent six-game road swing, the Giants averaged 6.3 runs per game and posted a .265/.341/.438 batting line, tallying 20 extra-base hits. In contrast, their latest homestand—where they dropped all six games to the Mets and Pirates—saw them score just 12 total runs (2.0 runs per game) and hit .216/.300/.312.

Currently, the Giants have lost eight consecutive home games since July 12, which ties for the second-longest home losing streak in their San Francisco history (dating back to 1958). The franchise record stands at nine straight home losses, set from May 30 to June 15, 2015.

Left-handed pitcher Matt Gage will take the mound for the Giants, who has struck out 11 and has a 1.07 WHIP over 15.0 scoreless innings over 13 games and one start. Since July 29, five of the eight games have seen a Giants starter throw at least 5.0 innings with no more than one earned run allowed.

Day: 25-25 | Night: 33-32 | Home Record: 28-26 | Road Record: 30-31

Current Streak: W2 | Last Five: 3-2 | Last Ten: 4-6 | Current Month: 4-2

Home Series: 8-8-1 | Series Opener at Home: 6-11 | By Series: 19-15-3

A.L. Teams: 21-21 | N.L. Teams: 37-36 | N.L. East: 15-13