ATLANTA — The Washington Nationals placed starter Jake Irvin on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a right shoulder strain. The team recalled left-hander PJ Poulin.
Any injury is a hindrance, but Irvin was pitching as well as he had all season. He threw five no-hit innings with seven strikeouts Saturday. The execution was pristine, and the velocity was up.
But, after the fifth inning of the 2-0 win over the National League East-leading Braves, Irvin complained about shoulder discomfort, and the tightness didn’t subside when he went back out for the sixth.
“It’s something not too concerning that we think will be a minimum IL stay for now,” manager Blake Butera said. “Obviously, we’ll monitor the next few days and see how he’s feeling coming out of this, but thoughts are that it obviously could have been worse, and we got about as good news as we could.”
Irvin is 2-4 with a 5.23 ERA over 11 starts. Baseball Reference has graded him negatively in terms of wins above replacement (minus-0.1). But he has rebounded since allowing six runs (five earned) against the Reds in an 8-7 comeback win.
Over his last two starts, he’s struck out 13 hitters while allowing two total walks.
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Irvin has been a pillar of health throughout his major league career. He had only been on the IL once, in 2023, for right ankle tendinitis.
As a competitor, spending time on the IL eats at Irvin. He wants the ball every fifth day, and it pained him to leave Saturday’s start when he was throwing a no-hitter. But that he alerted the medical staff about the shoulder might have prevented the injury from worsening.
“I was confident it was nothing long term,” Irvin said. “You just roll with the punches, no matter what it looks like.”
Irvin will be shut down from throwing on Sunday and Monday but will resume on Tuesday. The next step is to undergo treatment to strengthen the shoulder.
Getting innings from their starters is imperative for the Nationals. The team is finishing a stretch of 16 straight games without a day off, and the bullpen has thrown the most innings in the majors.
Butera said the team hasn’t determined how it’ll handle Irvin’s turn in the rotation. The team is headed to Cleveland for a three-game set before getting an off day on Thursday. The Nationals will make an assessment after that series.
The likeliest outcome is that left-hander Andrew Alvarez will pitch in a bulk role after an opener.
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