Prior to today’s game with the Braves, the Nationals announced that right-hander Jake Irvin had been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strain in his throwing shoulder.  Left-hander PJ Poulin was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

An IL stint seemed inevitable when Irvin left Saturday’s game after five innings and 80 pitches, despite the fact that Irvin still hasn’t allowed a hit against the powerful Atlanta lineup.  An MRI revealed the strain but nothing more serious, and manager Blake Butera told MLB.com’s Rick Farlow and other reporters that Irvin may miss just the minimum 15 days.  Irvin described the diagnosis as the “best news that we could have heard….[I’ll] just attack it with treatment and strengthening and just trying to do whatever we can to get this thing to heal up as quick as possible.”

It’s a sign of Irvin’s bad luck this season that the injury occurred during what was shaping up as the best outing of an otherwise rough 2026.  Irvin has a 5.23 ERA over 11 starts and 51 2/3 innings, but a 3.79 SIERA is perhaps more reflective of his work.  The righty is allowing a lot of hard contact and his 9.6% walk rate is below average, but Irvin is striking out batters at a solid 25.4% rate — easily the best K% of his four MLB seasons.

Washington’s rotation hasn’t been very effective on the whole but they have been durable.  Beyond the starting five of Irvin, Cade Cavalli, Foster Griffin, Zack Littell, and Miles Mikolas, the only other pitchers to make “starts” this season were Poulin and Richard Lovelady, who combined for eight appearances as an opener.

Since the Nats have an off-day on Thursday, Irvin’s spot in the rotation doesn’t need to be addressed until June 2.  The club could obviously have a fill-in starter interrupt the usual rotation order if the other starters are given an extra rest day, or a bullpen day could be scheduled if an actual starter isn’t used to take Irvin’s place.