Dave Roberts Credits Nationals Starter Jake Irvin For Shutting Down Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped their series to the Washington Nationals in the rubber match on Wednesday as they were shut out for the first time in 2024, losing 2-0.

Jake Irvin made the start for Washington, and he turned in a gem. The right-hander pitched six shutout innings, giving up just for hits and one walk while striking out six.

Despite facing arguably the top lineup in MLB, Irvin was able to rise to the occasion, and he earned some praise from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times:

“I think today we have to give Irvin a lot of credit,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s one of those things where we haven’t seen him before. He has a lively fastball, and it played up in the zone. He was riding it in on the right-handers. He threw some breaking balls. There were a lot of strikeouts and soft contact. Clearly, our guys weren’t seeing the ball well.”

The Dodgers have been in a rough patch recently, losing seven of their last 12 games, including five of their previous seven. During those four series, the offense is scoring just about four runs per game on average while hitting .244.

The bottom of the order has been a major issue, which prompted the call-up of Andy Pages, but they have also not received the same level of production from Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani that they expect.

Ohtani has been productive overall, but he has struggled with runners in scoring position to begin the year, which has cost the Dodgers numerous runs, and it’s something they want to address.

The Dodgers are likely going to turn their slump around soon as baseball is a game of ebbs and flows, but when that happens remains to be seen.

Dave Roberts wants Dodgers to remain steadfast

Even with their slump, the Dodgers still lead the National League West, and Roberts wants them to remember it’s a long season, so not everything will always be going well.

“Remain steadfast,” Roberts said. “I think that’s the thing. It’s a long season. And I think that you have to kind of trust the process of what you’re doing, and the people that you’re with and working with. And I think we do that as well as anybody. We don’t really ride waves like a lot of other teams do.”