It was a rough one in the District tonight, as the Nationals dropped a 6-1 snoozer to the Milwaukee Brewers in game one of this weekend’s three-game series. The Nats were just outclassed tonight by a Brewers’ pitching attack led by their young ace Jacob Misiorowski, who unfortunately had to exit the game early tonight due to an apparent leg injury, but still managed to hold the Nats to zero hits over his 5.1 dominant innings. Jake Irvin struggled in numerous capacities tonight, but on the scoreboard — it was his defense who made it worse. We’ll go over those throughout this article, but all in all, not a great night to begin the homestand. Let’s get into it.

The Action

The Brewers capitalized on Jake Irvin‘s spotty command early on in this game, and it was that inconsistency that helped Milwaukee pick up a run to begin the game in the first. The problem became apparent pretty quickly, as Irvin began each of the first three batters of the game behind in the count 2-0. Thankfully, it didn’t hurt the Nats too much, as the Brewers scored one on a passed ball by Drew Millas, but that was the extent of the damage. Irvin’s command wasn’t the most glaring deficiency for him tonight; as his start went on, it became his velocity. Not appearing to be injured at all, so no reason to worry, but all night his fastball was two miles per hour down from where it normally is, even the TV broadcast made note of that.

Speaking of fastball velocity, it was all there tonight for Jacob Misiorowski. The young flame-thrower was mowing down the Nats’ lineup, with velocity numbers consistently reading triple-digits throughout his start. The Nats got a walk in each of the first two innings but could not do anything with those opportunities.

The Brewers doubled their lead in the top of the third, taking advantage of a lapse in command from Jake Irvin, as he walked two of the first three hitters, setting up for an RBI single by William Contreras, making it 2-0 Milwaukee.

The game remained 2-0 into the fifth inning; the Nats remained hitless to this point by the way. The Brewers finally opened this game up in the fifth against Jake Irvin, doubling their lead once again, this time thanks to an RBI groundout from Luis Rengifo and a two-out RBI double by Tyler Black. Irvin would stay in to get the last out of the fifth, but that would be the end of his day.

Meanwhile, Jacob Misiorowski had himself a night. The youngster shut out the Nats’ offense over 5.1 hitless innings, when all of a sudden he threw a pitch, came up gimpy, and was forced to exit with an apparent injury, ending what was a career night prematurely. Very unfortunate break for him and the Brewers, praying that it’s nothing serious, as someone with his stuff and electricity is so good for the game of baseball to have healthy and on the mound every five days.

• Jacob Misiorowski: 5.1 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 85 pitches
• Jake Irvin: 5 innings, 6 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), 4 walks, 5 strikeouts, 98 pitches

Cionel Perez was first out of the bullpen tonight. The struggling lefty came in for the sixth inning, in desperate need of a good outing to try and turn around what’s been a rough start to the season, and he was awesome. Perez did a great job over the next two frames, getting the Nationals through the sixth and seventh innings with Milwaukee still stuck at four runs.

The Nats got on the board in the bottom of the seventh, both the hits board and the scoreboard. Daylen Lile came up with a one-out double to break Milwaukee’s hitless run, and on the next batter, Brady House got the Nationals on the board with an RBI groundout, making it 4-1.

The Brewers busted it open once again in the top half of the eighth against Andre Granillo, as William Contreras continued his hot hitting against Washington this season with a two-run single, once again with two outs, making it 6-1 and giving us our final score.

The Nationals squandered a two-on, nobody out opportunity in the bottom of the eighth and failed to score off of it, and after Paxton Schultz delivered a scoreless top of the ninth, the Brewers brought on Easton McGee, who closed it out and gave Milwaukee the opening game win to begin this weekend series.

The Positives

On a night where there was very little to root for on the Washington side, we did at least see some strong performances out of the bullpen to give us some hope. Cionel Perez and Paxton Schultz both did a good job in their relief assignments tonight, as the Nationals continue to search for some consistency out of their reliever core. Offensively, Daylen Lile was on base twice tonight, with a walk and his seventh-inning double. We’re going to skip over the rest of the lineup for tonight and just flip on over to tomorrow.

What’s Next?

The teams will be back at it for game two of this series tomorrow afternoon for a day game, with first pitch coming our way at 4:05. The Nationals will send out Foster Griffin (3-0, 2.67 ERA) to the bump after he carved up this Brewers lineup in Milwaukee just a couple of weekends ago. He’ll be opposed by the same man who opposed him in that Saturday afternoon game as well, in lefty Kyle Harrison (2-1, 2.28 ERA).

Down on the Farm

AAA Rochester

• 10-5 loss tonight versus Worcester
• Andry Lara: 4.1 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts (3.95 ERA now on the season)
• Jackson Rutledge: 1.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 walks, 1 strikeout (2.25 ERA in Triple-A now)
• Dylan Crews: 2-4, double (BA up to .250, OPS at .746)
• YoYo Morales: 1-3, walk (BA up to .323, OPS at .884)
• Andres Chaparro: 1-4, double (BA up to .259, OPS at .795)
• Abi Ortiz: 2-3, home run (2), double, 4 RBIs (BA up to .245, OPS at .787)
• Tomorrow: 1:05 game versus Worcester (Andrew Alvarez pitching)

AA Harrisburg

• 3-2 loss tonight at Akron (10 innings)
• Shinnosuke Ogasawara: 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts (1.59 ERA in AA this year)
• Luke Young: 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts (1.72 ERA in 15.2 AA innings this year)
• Seaver King: 2-5 (BA up to .292, OPS at .928)
• Cayden Wallace: 1-5, double, RBI (BA up to .287, OPS at .944)
• Kervin Pichardo: 1-3, RBI, 2 walks (BA up to .326, OPS at 1.027)
• Caleb Lomavita: 2-4, double (BA up to .246, OPS at .788)
• Tomorrow: 6:05 game at Akron (Kyle Luckham pitching)

High-A Wilmington

• 7-6 win tonight versus Asheville (12 innings)
• Yoel Tejeda: 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts (5.48 ERA this year)
• Robert Cranz: 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts (2.63 ERA this year)
• Brady Hill: 2 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts (0.73 ERA in 12.1 High-A innings this year)
• Devin Fitz-Gerald: 2-5, walk (BA up to .302, OPS at .951) Scored the winning run
• Ronny Cruz: 1-5, walk, stolen base (3) (BA up to .356, OPS at 1.020)
• Angel Feliz: 2-6, double, 2 RBIs (BA up to .209, OPS at .616)
• Ethan Petry: 1-4, home run (4), 3 RBIs, 2 walks (BA up to .325, OPS at .986)
• Elijah Green: 2-6, triple, 2 RBIs (BA up to .178, OPS at .672) Game tying triple in the 10th inning to tie the game. The walk-off single to win the game in the 12th inning.
• T.J. White: 1-5, double (BA up to .222, OPS at .832)
• Tomorrow: 6:05 game versus Asheville (Isaac Lyon pitching)

Low-A Fredericksburg

• 8-1 win tonight versus Hickory
• Carson Fischer: 6 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts (1.71 ERA now on the season)
• Eli Willits: 1-2, home run (3), 2 RBIs, 3 walks, stolen base (19), (BA up to .253, OPS at .827)
• Luke Dickerson: 2-5, RBI (BA up to .269, OPS at .874)
• Coy James: 2-4, stolen base (12) (BA up to .198, OPS at .746)
• Jordan Williams: 1-3, triple, RBI (BA up to .360, OPS at 1.113)
• Juan Cruz: 2-4, home run (1), 3 RBIs (BA up to .263, OPS at .697)
• Rafael Ramirez Jr.: 1-3, double, RBI, walk (BA up to .200, OPS at .656)
• Tomorrow: 6:35 game versus Hickory (Leuris Portorreal pitching)