Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ road trip, Davey Martinez’s 400th win, and Mitchell Parker’s debut…
MARTINEZ GETS NO. 400:
Eighteen games into his seventh season on the bench in D.C., Davey Martinez earned his 400th win as a manager on Wednesday night, in a 2-0 win in Dodger Stadium, where the Washington Nationals won the 2nd of 3 with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the series.
Typically, the now-59-year-old skipper, who has a 400-488 record overall, did his best to try to downplay his own role in it, pointing to his players and coaches in post game comments as the reason he has been able to reach the milestone.
When he got back to the clubhouse after the win, he was feted with a beer shower in the visitors’ clubhouse.
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
“It wasn’t just the coaches, it was the whole team,” he said when asked if he celebrated with his staff. “I got a beer shower, a little cold, I stink, but I appreciate them. Look, this is never about me, I can’t do what I did without those guys in there, and my coaching staff, so I appreciate them very much.”
More important to the manager was the fact that he and his club won the series and wrapped up a winning West Coast road trip with a 5-4 record against San Francisco, Oakland, and LA.
“They’re fighters, they really are,” he said of his club. “They play with a lot of passion, a lot of heart, the energy was really good today, so to get a win today, going back to the East Coast was awesome. Playing the Dodgers, like I said, it’s a great place to play here, and we feel really good about going on that plane now. We came out to the West Coast, it’s never easy, but we did well.”
GARCÍA, JR. AT 2B:
Bob Carpenter, in the 8th inning of the Nats’ win on Wednesday, described the defensive game Luis García, Jr. was having, diving left and right on the right side of the infield, as “… easily the best defensive game of [García’s] big league career.”
“He played unbelievable defense today, he really did,” Davey Martinez said in his post game presser after the series finale in LA. “He’s got it in him, and we’ve always said that. It’s about consistency with him. But he’s been playing really well. I’m proud of him. He’s grinding out at bats. He’s doing all the little things we asked him to do. He’s stealing bases for us when we allow him to. He’s playing really well.”
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
García, Jr.’s 1 for 3 game at the plate in the series finale LA left him 15 for 51 (.294/.321/.490) in 16 games and 53 PAs early this season, and as his manager said he’s looking more patient and poised out there this season, after some up and down campaigns the last few years.
Martinez gave some of the credit to Ricky Gutierrez, the Nats’ third base and infield coach.
“Ricky has done a great job with him as far as gathering himself and taking his time throwing the ball to first base, not trying to lob it over there,” Martinez said, “… that’s when he gets in trouble. Like I said, he’s playing really well right now. I bumped him up to fourth because his at-bats have been good. I’m trying to see if we can score some runs early, we did that today, and it held up.”
MIKE RIZZO ON MITCHELL PARKER IN LA:
Mitchell Parker went five innings on 81 pitches, striking out four and allowing just four hits and two earned runs against a stacked Dodgers’ lineup in his MLB debut earlier this week, and became the first Nationals’ rookie to win his MLB debut since Stephen Strasburg did in 2010. Not a bad start to your big league career.
Parker, 24, and a 2020 5th Round pick by the Nats, impressed in the outing, and the GM in D.C. was watching closely.
Mitchell Parker leading opposing Dodger fans in the Wave. pic.twitter.com/mt9eOME8h8
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 16, 2024
In his weekly visit with Audacy’s The Sports Junkies on 106.7 the FAN, Nationals GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo went on at length about what he focused on as he watched Parker take the next step:
“Mitchell came up and he’s always been a quiet kid. It was the COVID draft, the five-round draft that we had after COVID and he was our fifth round pick out of a junior college. He is a real player development success story. This guy was a hard-throwing, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks-type of guy coming out of junior college and we’ve really defined his delivery, we’ve really improved his athleticism and his mechanics and allowed him to find the strike zone at a rate where he can be successful with his stuff.
“He’s always had good stuff, left-handed, big-bodied guy that throws in the mid-90s, he’s got a hammer curve, he’s got a split finger, and his issue throughout his amateur career and the early pro days was throwing quality strikes, and I think when you see the pitching coaches in the minor leagues and our pitching coordinators have told him throughout the years, ‘You’ve got to pound the strike zone,’ and ‘Your stuff doesn’t play unless you can make it play over the plate,’ and I think what really stood out for me is you go into Dodger Stadium with probably 50,000 people in the stands and you’re amped up for your first start and you’re seeing guys that are going to be in the Hall of Fame that you probably had posters of on the wall not too far back, and you go out there with the poise and the confidence and the command of the situation of a really veteran guy, that to me was the most inspiring thing that I saw throughout that game.
“The stuff was good, the performance was great, we won the game, and that was all good, but when this guy was standing on the mound in front of all those people and you couldn’t tell it was his first start in the big leagues ever, I think that said a lot about him as a person, and how he was trained and developed into standing up for the moment.”