The focus heading into Mitchell Parker’s 27th start of the season was getting back to what worked for the rookie left-hander when he first broke into the Nationals’ starting rotation.
Parker threw a six. 1⁄3 He pitched 12 innings against the Miami Marlins, giving up three hits and two runs (none earned), walking no batters and striking out five of the 25 batters he faced.
“He was pitching really well,” manager Davey Martinez said after Parker’s 6-3 no-decision loss to the Fish. “He confused them, his fastball was good, he had good trajectory on his fastball, and he was pitching for the first time in a couple of games, so that was encouraging. He was able to throw the ball high when he needed to, which is what he does well, but his split was really good, too.”
What was your focus leading up to going out?
“For him to get back to his normal self, he’s got to throw it hard, throw it hard,” Martinez added. “He’s got to find his split ball, figure out how to use it again, stay on his own pacing, stay on his own pacing, don’t get flustered and stay on his own pacing. He did a good job today.”
Parker’s start included an efficient 76 pitches, striking out 14 (eight of which were splitters) and throwing seven for strikes (five of which were curves).
“I’ve been pressuring the last few times and that’s not my character,” Parker said. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
“We had some good discussions and practiced in between games last week. We just went out there and did what we always do.”
Parker, playing Washington’s second of three games last night at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens, N.Y., singled with one out in the first inning and a leadoff single in the second inning to drive in two runs, but then hit five straight home runs after his teammates took a 1-0 lead (with the bases loaded in the top of the third). Mets He was the first to reach base in the bottom of the inning (walk, RBI double, single, walk, two-run single) to make it 3-1, then a sacrifice fly made it 4-1 to finally end the inning.
He gave up a home run to the Mets’ leadoff batter in the fourth inning and was replaced after allowing a single with two outs.
Parker ended up with only three points. 2⁄3 In this outing, he threw one inning of 78 pitches (7 hits, 2 walks, 5 runs), of which 45 were strikes, there were only 4 strikeouts, and 11 were called strikes.
“Our pitching just wasn’t good,” Parker said after the 10-1 loss. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman“Even with two strikes I couldn’t score anything.
“And you can’t just walk two guys and expect nothing bad to happen, especially against this team.”
“He pitched well, but he didn’t control the strike zone. He got off to a big slow start. He threw a lot more pitches in the three innings,” manager Martinez told reporters.
“He got behind, he got delayed, he couldn’t get ahead, and then he had to throw strikes, and they could hit them. His pitches, his fastball was good, his changeup was good, but they were in the zone, but he got behind.”
When asked what he thought of Parker’s rookie season so far, the captain said there have been some good and bad things.
“He started off really, really well. He got a little off in the middle of the game. He got better after that. He was better the couple of games before this one, but this one, like I said, he threw more pitches. He still pitched well, but he just didn’t find the strike zone.”
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Also, this is… a note, Dylan Crews had 3 hits last night. The Nationals had 4 total…