NEWS FLASH: After a heated disagreement in the locker room, the Atlanta Braves management benched their biggest superstar player for showing disrespect for the team.

Jake Irvin struck out 10 in six scoreless innings in Atlanta during the last road trip, without walking a batter in the 90-pitch outing against the Braves in Truist Park.

“Just a good, steady mix, and throwing the four-seamer in zone, at the top of the zone,” Irvin said of his success in the outing.

“That was kind of a focus for us this week. Executed pretty well and [it] leads to good things.”

“Outstanding,” manager Davey Martinez said in assessing Irvin’s outing. “The kid was good. Really good. Ten strikeouts against that team, that’s pretty impressive. He threw the ball really well.”

Irvin followed that up with a strong start in Cleveland (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks).

Going up against the Braves again last night in the nation’s capital, Irvin held the Nationals’ NL East rivals off the board through six scoreless, giving up four hits and two walks in a 96-pitch, 64-strike outing which ended with Irvin working around a leadoff double in the fifth, and a leadoff single and double in the sixth which put runners on first and third with no one out, but the starter recorded three straight outs without a run scoring, preserving a 2-0 lead in what ended up a 2-1

win.

Irvin got 16 swinging strikes, nine on his curve and five on his fastball, and he recorded 12 called strikes, six on his sinker, four on his curve, and two on his fastball.

The two runs for the Nationals came in the fourth, when CJ Abrams doubled to left to start the inning, and Nick Senzel took a one-out walk, then both stole bases (9 for Abrams, No. 1 for Senzel, who was the only roster regular without a stolen base on the year to that point).

“[Irvin] was good,” Martinez said after evening things up two games into the four-game series with the Braves this weekend. “Another guy to face the Braves just last week. Goes out and pitches really well against them again. That’s a tough team, as we all know. They can hit, so what our two starters did these first two games was pretty impressive. It really was. They kept us in a ballgame. We faced a tough pitcher [Chris Sale]. We just got enough runs. Sometimes just one more than the other guys helps, right? So I’m proud of the guys.”