Nats’ year ends on a low note for Jake Irvin but a high one for Dylan Crews

Jake Irvin had been looking forward to Sunday's start from the moment he last walked off the mound. And the stakes were high, relatively speaking, in the Washington Nationals' final game of the year: Irvin's performance could leave him with a good feeling all offseason — or it could saddle him with a bad one until spring training.

Irvin ended up with the latter, and his head was down as he walked to the home dugout at Nationals Park . He had allowed six runs over 41⁄3 innings of a 6-3 loss to the National League East champion Philadelphia Phillies.

"It's tough to chew on a bad one for the last one," Irvin said. "For me, it's just fuel to the fire. Going to go into the offseason and, hopefully, continue to stay healthy. But the biggest focus is to get better, come back in the spring ready to compete for a championship. And I'm fired up about it."

The reason for Irvin's struggles Sunday was easy to find: too many walks against a talented lineup. To start the game, he walked Kyle Schwarber. A single and another walk later, the bases were loaded. Two batters after that, the visitors had a 2-0 lead after a pair of RBI groundouts.

Over the next three innings, Irvin retired the side in order. But in the fifth, he walked the leadoff hitter again. Two singles later, the bases were loaded. Three batters after that, the Phillies (95-67) led 6-1 after a two-run single by Schwarber and a two-run double by Weston Wilson.

Washington's Luis García Jr., who hit his 18th homer in the first inning, added an RBI single in a two-run fifth that made it 6-3. And the Nationals loaded the bases in the ninth. After a pair of strikeouts, Juan Yepez hit a flyball to left that could have been a walk-off grand slam. Instead, the ball was caught at the wall, ending the Nationals' season where it finished last season: at 71-91.

"We've seen some growth in a lot of these guys," Manager Dave Martinez said. "We've seen some maturity in a lot of these guys. ... They learn from their mistakes, and they learn from what they did really well."

Entering this season, the Nationals were focused on the growth of established members of their roster and that of the players charging up behind them. The results ended up mixed for both groups.

Shortstop CJ Abrams earned his first all-star appearance , and second baseman García was the team's best hitter after nearly not making the Opening Day roster. Irvin and MacKenzie Gore had flashes of success on the mound.

But catcher Keibert Ruiz suffered from the flu in the first month and never established himself offensively. Josiah Gray, the Opening Day starter, made just two starts and eventually needed Tommy John surgery . Cade Cavalli never pitched in the majors after setbacks in rehab from his own Tommy John.

More encouraging for the Nationals: The players who began the season in the minors made the most of their opportunities when they were called up. Jacob Young may have turned in a Gold Glove season in center field. Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz were promoted earlier than expected and stuck in the rotation. And, of course, outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews made highly anticipated debuts. All of that didn't push the Nationals into playoff contention, but they were in the wild-card mix in late June.

"The record might not show it this season, but we got a bunch of guys that made debuts this year," Irvin said. "And we got a bunch of guys that have only played a year or less in the big leagues. The way I look at it, we have a lot of guys that are ready to compete and want to compete now."

Plenty of questions will carry into the offseason. To end a rough second half, Abrams was demoted to Class AAA Rochester on Sept. 21 for what Martinez said were reasons not tied to his performance; he had been out all night following a game in Chicago, multiple people familiar with the situation said. How he responds to that incident remains to be seen.

And banking on continued improvement from their young players probably won't be enough. The Nationals need to spend in the offseason and bring in starting pitchers and power bats if they want to contend next year.

But as the rebuild continued, the Nationals' young players gained valuable experience. Take Crews, who went 3 for 3 on Sunday before he was hit by a pitch in his last plate appearance. He has 31 games under his belt. He has shown he can compete on the base paths and in the outfield, but he faced a steep learning curve at the plate, finishing with a .218 batting average after it leaped 20 points on the season's final day.

Crews singled against Aaron Nola in the second and fourth innings. In the sixth, he lined a ball into center field that bounced off the glove of Brandon Marsh; his helmet flew off as he legged out a triple. The Nationals hope to see much more of that in the future. But as the offseason arrives, Crews will settle for a good feeling in his stomach over the next few months.

"Definitely something that I take a lot of pride in is trying to finish strong," he said. "There's two things to it: one, good impressions. And then two, just trying to ... leave on a high note."