Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker does it again; 7.0 scoreless vs Astros in 6-0 win…

Mitchell Parker is 2 for 2 with solid starts early in his career. Notes and quotes on the Nats’ starter’s second outing…

Talking about Mitchell Parker’s MLB debut on the road in Dodger Stadium last week, which came four years after the Nationals selected the southpaw in the 5th Round of the 2020’s truncated COVID Draft, GM and President of Baseball ops Mike Rizzo described the lefty’s rise through the ranks as an organizational success story.

It was the result of a lot of hard work on the part of Parker himself and the Nationals’ player development staff throughout the minor league system.

“He is a real player development success story,” Rizzo told Audacy’s The Sports Junkies on 106.7 the FAN. “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.”

The message to Parker on the way up was a simple one, which was hammered home, and he took it to heart and worked hard for the opportunity.

“He’s always had good stuff. Left-handed, big-bodied guy that throws in the mid-90s,” Rizzo continued.

“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.’”

Manager Davey Martinez said before the outing in LA it was Parker’s willingness to pound the zone and trust his stuff this spring that convinced him the lefty was ready for his first major league opportunity.

“The way he attacked the strike zone, it just seemed like nothing really rattled him, he was very composed,” Martinez said.

Once he got past the adrenaline and excitement of making his debut, in front of 42,677 fans in Dodger Stadium, the Nats’ brass saw the poise and calm on the mound they’d expected.

“He did really well,” Martinez said after the five-inning, 81-pitch outing in which Parker gave up four hits and two runs, striking out four without walking a batter.

“The kid has a very low heartbeat, I’ve know that for a while,” the skipper said after a win over the Dodgers.

“And nothing seems to faze him, he’s going to go attack the zone … and he started getting his breaking ball over really well, and that really helped him out a lot.

“That’s a tough team to face, you know, and he did really, really well.”

“You go out there with the poise and the confidence and the command of the situation of a really veteran guy,” Rizzo told the Junkies, “… that to me was the most inspiring thing that I saw throughout that game.”

“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.”

How did Parker handle his first home start on Sunday in the series finale with the Astros on Sunday?

The 24-year-old starter tossed seven scoreless innings on just 73 pitches, 57 strikes, striking out eight and walking no one (again), in what ended up a 6-0 win.

Parker got 13 swings and seven whiffs on his splitter, and 12 swinging strikes overall, with 14 called strikes, seven each on his fastball and curve.

How unique a start to a big league career is this?

“He’s pounding the strike zone. He’s been unbelievable. Both outings he’s really attacking the strike zone, and that’s awesome,” Martinez said after his club took 2 of 3 games in D.C.

“Really, it was more of just a mental thing,” Parker said of his willingness to pound the zone, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“It’s a lot easier to fight from not (being) behind in the count. Just keep attacking and get strike one, that’s all we’re aiming for.”

“The biggest thing for him even in Spring Training is [understanding] where your swings and misses are, where’s the contact, right?” Martinez explained. “And it’s always up/down. It’s never out — so up/down is good for him. He’s got a really good curveball, a really good fastball. His [splitter] was really, really good today. But everything was over the plate. So he started doing that in Spring Training, we started seeing him doing it, and he was lights-out. The big thing is to kind of build him up a little. He went four [at Triple-A]. He went five [in LA]. And we pushed him to seven [Sunday]. I was biting my lip, but I just couldn’t do it to him, because we need him for the long haul.”

Parker threw just 6% splitters in that outing. It was up to 25% in start No. 2.

“When his [splitter] is on like it was today, he can be really effective,” Martinez added.

“We saw him in LA, his [splitter] wasn’t very good, and I told him to axe it, and just go curveball/fastball, and he did really well with just doing that.

“Today his [splitter] was good, he threw it, and he threw very [effectively].”

MENESES’S BIG MOMENT:

Joey Meneses connected for two hits early in Saturday’s win over the Astros, and his third hit of the game was a walk-off winner, a single to right-center which drove in the free man on second base to end it in the bottom of the 10th.

After a rough start to the season, the big hit meant a lot to the soon-to-turn-32-year-old slugger.

“I’ve been battling and struggling to start the season,” Meneses told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after the game.

“This kind of at-bat and situation kind of relaxes me. And obviously, I’m excited about that. … Every at-bat I take, I try to feel like it’s a fresh start. Focus on that, and don’t let the previous at-bats affect me.”

The three-hit game left Meneses 13 for 60 early this season (.217/.300/.233).

Not exactly the start the Nationals were hoping for from the breakout star of late 2022, who was nails with men in scoring position in a less power-filled 2023 run.

“That was awesome,” Martinez said of Meneses’s big hit. “Hopefully it gets him going, but he had a couple hits today, that’s the third hit of the day, so hopefully we’ll get him going now and he’ll start driving in the runs we need to get driven.”

Meneses grounded out weakly with a runner in scoring position early in the game, and then struck out with two on and no one out in the eighth, so the walk-off hit after they’d tied it to send it to extras meant a lot.

“He’s really been frustrated,” Martinez acknowledged.

“He really has. He feels like he’s letting us down, and he’s not. I tell him all the time, ‘Hey, this game is not easy, you’re going to go through struggles, we got to try to get you out of it. Stay in the middle of the field.’ My biggest thing with him is, ‘Hey, stay in the middle of the field, that’s who you are, don’t try to do too much.’ I know the emphasis has been for him to try to go out and hit home runs and drive in — I said, ‘Hey, doubles are awesome. You’ll hit some home runs, but stay in the middle of the field.’ And like I said, today, he got a base hit early, got another base hit, he came up with a chance to knock in some runs, he didn’t do it, but yet he came through when he needed him to come through most, and I’ve seen him do that plenty. So I hope that that last hit, the game winner really opens his eyes, and he understands who he is and what he needs to do and let’s get back to that.”