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WASHINGTON, D.C. - MARCH 29 - The Washington Nationals dropped a tough one today to the Philadelphia Phillies after disastrous sixth and seventh innings from the bullpen. Jake Irvin had a solid start, but the offense could not capitalize in time before things got out of reach en route to another loss.

Jake Irvin had a high bar set for him by MacKenzie Gore on Thursday, but he did not disappoint. While he only went 5.0 innings and allowed seven hits, he held Philly to just two runs, both of which came from a Bryson Stott home run in the fourth inning. Irvin kept the ball mostly on the ground, as he induced seven groundouts and just three flyouts. The game was tied when he handed the ball off to Colin Poche, but that did not last long. Poche recorded only one out and loaded the bases before getting pulled in favor of Lucas Sims, who served up a three-run homer to Kyle Schwarber after walking in one of Poche’s runners, and throwing a bases loaded wild pitch. Orlando Ribalta, who entered after Sims recorded no outs, pitched 2.0 innings, although it included allowing a Brandon Marsh three-run home run and four earned runs in total. Eduardo Salazar then pitched a much-welcome scoreless 1.2 innings to end the night for the bullpen. Poche, now 0-2 after being the losing pitcher today, leads the league in losses early in the season. The bullpen was supposed to be much better on paper, but early results have been extremely alarming, and walks have been a big reason why. It just may take time to fix, as this has been a focus since the start of spring training.

On the offensive side, the lineup had some good performances as well as some messy ones. CJ Abrams was 2-4, although he struck out twice. Dylan Crews had a day to forget, striking out five times. James Wood was 2-5, though he struck out three times. However, unexpected names provided the sparks. Amed Rosario and Nathaniel Lowe both hit their first home runs in D.C., and Keibert Ruiz continued his strong start by going 2-3, including hitting his second home run, which gave the Nats an early 2-0 lead. Two runs should never be considered enough by this team, but it was great to see them continue to fight up until the end, despite there being no real chance of a comeback.

This game really showed that a lot of work still needs to be done by the bullpen to limit the walks, but this team has the grit needed to do big things this season. Many things need to go right, but they have been keeping things close for most of the games. Now, it is just about teaching them to finish the job.

Up next…

The Nationals and Phillies will finish the series at 1:05 tomorrow, with Mitchell Parker facing off against Aaron Nola. The team will then head to Toronto for a Monday- Wednesday series, and then they will host Arizona next weekend.