Rotations that feed into each other:
MacKenzie Gore struck out 10 of 28 batters he faced over seven straight innings in Friday night’s series opener against Miami in the nation’s capital. DJ Hurts then followed Gore up with six scoreless innings, striking out 13 of 18 batters and furthering the kind of impressive pitching from his fellow left-hander in the rotation that the D.C. manager would have liked to see.
“I think they’re really starting to motivate each other,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters after the Nationals’ second straight win over the Marlins and the seventh in eight games overall.
“They’re very close,” he said of the Nationals’ starting pitchers, “and they’re really close.”
“The players are watching each other and cheering each other on, but overall I think each player is trying to do the same thing as the other player. It’s fun to watch.”
How will 24-year-old rookie left-hander Mitchell Parker help the Fish, who has a .219/.270/.314 slash against left-handed pitching this year that ranks 28th/30th/30th overall in the major leagues so far in 2024, follow the success of starting pitchers Gore and Hurts?
Parker pitched six innings, allowing just one run on six hits, then gave up a grounder to the mound with two outs and a runner on third base, giving the Marlins the lead.and,) runs and scores.
Parker threw 85 pitches in the afternoon, 65 of which were strikes, eight were whiffs and 13 were called strikes, while he walked none and struck out four Marlins batters.
He didn’t crumble after the error like he did last time, getting the final out in the bottom of the fifth, then returned to the mound in the sixth, singled with one and two outs and making another solid appearance as the Nationals’ starter.
“Everybody’s pitching well,” Parker said of the Nationals’ starting pitchers’ strong start. The starting pitchers had a 1.03 ERA (4 runs allowed per 35.0 innings), an opponent batting average of .198, and 37 runs allowed per 35.0 innings. [Ks]In his last six starts, he had one hit and seven walks.
“It’s contagious,” Parker said. “We keep winning games. It’s fun to win. We’re all there to win games? I mean, we’re having a lot of fun.”
Prior to this start, Parker had thrown a fastball 48% of his pitches, a curveball 27.1% of his pitches, a splitter 17.1% of his pitches and a slider 7.3% of his pitches this year, but against the Marlins he relied more on his splitter, fastball 48% of his pitches, curveball 11% of his pitches and slider 9% of his pitches.
“I think he didn’t feel like everything else was sharp,” Martinez explained, “so he relied on his split, and that worked really well for him. His split was good today, and he got the job done. He pitched six strong innings, so that was great.”
Is it that he’s been able to thrive with the pitches that work and set aside the ones that aren’t working?
“It’s great,” Parker said, “… I get to try out a bunch of different pitches. I can’t try out every pitch every day, but it’s great to know I have two or three pitches that are effective and I can rely on them pretty well.”
His manager [indirectly] Agree.
“It was awesome,” Parker said of his 3.53 FIP and 67 ATK in 12 starts. 2⁄3 IP.
“His first day here, he was in LA and his splitter wasn’t good, right? He relied on his curveball,” Martinez continued. “I told him to stop using the splitter because it wasn’t working. He was able to dominate with his fastball and his curveball. Today it was the opposite. The curveball, he wasn’t confident with the curveball. He threw some good pitches, but other than that his splitter was really good, so he relied on the splitter a little bit with his fastball.”
Lane Train:
Lane Thomas opened the scoring for the home team on Sunday afternoon, smashing a 2-1 fastball from left-hander Jesus Luzardo 393 feet to left field for his seventh run of the season and third in the past three games.
In a post-game note, the Nationals wrote that with the home run, Thomas “extended his hitting streak to 10 games while batting .351 (13-for-37) with one double, one triple, four home runs and eight RBI.”[s]four walks, one stolen base, and 10 runs scored.”
“He’s seeing the ball really well right now,” manager Davey Martinez said after Thomas went 1-for-4 and hit a home run in Sunday’s pitcher’s victory. “He’s coming back on time, staying in the middle of the field and trying to hit the ball. He hit one to center field today and one to right field yesterday. But he’s really good at staying behind the ball. We saw what he can do last year when he does that. He’s starting to get better little by little, which is great.”
Jacob Young hit his first major league home run in the fifth inning, smashing a 2-2 fastball that Young hit behind the visiting team’s Lippen for a 403-foot homer off Luzardo to break a 1-1 tie.
“The boys were crazy,” Martinez laughed. “We knew he was It was crushed Good for him. You could see that big grin on his face when he touched third base. It was awesome. And it was a big moment, but he put us back in the lead. He’s taking a lot of beating from his guys. So that’s good. He’s playing really well.
“His defense is great, it really is. He’s helping us win games.”
Young has batted with power, having played in 256 minor league games and hitting eight home runs, but while hitting home runs is nice, it’s not his forte.
“I don’t want to say he’s a home run hitter. I just want him to get on base. But you can see him hitting a home run every now and then. But he’s doing good.”
Ildemaro Vargas doubled down the right field line on an unhittable pitch to bring in the third run…
Harold Ramirez – Coming soon to the Nationals lineup:
Harold Ramirez, 29, played in 290 games and 1,038 at-bats over three seasons with Tampa Bay from 2002 to 2004, batting .300/.337/.411 with 46 doubles and 19 home runs. Steve Adams wrote for MLBTR The Rays tried to trade Ramirez this winter, this spring and over the past week, but he ended up being designated for assignment and they were unable to find anyone to take on Ramirez and his salary, so they waived the veteran slugger.
“Ramirez lacks defensive value; he’s poor at the corners of the outfield and at first base; he’s a free-swinging pitcher who rarely draws walks,” Adams wrote.
Ramirez walked 44 times and struck out in 184 at-bats over the past three seasons with the Rays.
“He’s primarily been the designated hitter for the Rays,” Adams added.
The Washington Nationals, looking to bolster their roster after Joey Gallo was placed on the disabled list with a “significant” hamstring injury, signed Ramirez this weekend and sent him to Triple-A Rochester to get some at-bats before a promotion to the majors.
“We signed him to help the team here, not at Triple-A,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters on Saturday regarding the news of the new addition to the team.
“We’d love to have him here, but we have to get him moving. He hasn’t played in about seven, eight, nine days, so we want to get him up to bat before he takes the mound.”
Martinez said the Nationals think he can contribute something when he steps up to the plate. He’s batting .310/.310/.379 against lefties this year, but has struggled overall against power hitters, batting .322/.357/.445 against them in his career.Against right-handed pitchers: .272/.311/.392).
“We were looking for a right-handed hitter,” the manager explained. “We signed him to a minor league contract. He got released by Tampa, but we know he has the ability to overpower left-handed hitters, and we like that about him. He’s going to go out there and try to get some at-bats and get going, and we’ll see what happens over the next week or so. But he’s consistently getting hits. He had an OPS above .800 last year. He doesn’t walk a lot of batters, but he has really good touch on the ball and he’s really good at hitting the ball, especially against left-handed pitchers.”
“I thought he was a guy that could really help the team, so we’ll see if we can use him. His power numbers have dropped this year, but I know he was a power hitter last year.”
“He can play multiple positions. We like him. He’s going to play tonight, so hopefully we’ll use him and then as soon as we feel he’s ready, we’ll promote him.”
Martinez said he could play as a DH, left-handed pitcher or first baseman and give the team some much-needed power, especially when a lefty is on the mound. So why is his power number down this year?
“I’ve seen some of his numbers,” Martinez said. “It looked like he was trying to pitch a little bit more this year and be more selective. He’s a free swinger. I know him really well. When he was in Miami, he was a guy who would go up to the plate and hit, so the scouts would kind of step away from him and see if he would get after it. He was putting the bat on the ball, so we want to get him back to that. I’m not looking for him to walk, I want him to hit. So hopefully we’ll be able to use him well, but I really believe he’s going to help us. He’s a great guy, great clubhouse atmosphere, so he’ll fit in perfectly here.”