Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker goes deep; Nats score early, dry up in 6-3 loss to Marlins…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ series opening loss to the Marlins, and Mitchell Parker’s solid start…

Washington Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez spoke with reporters at length earlier this week about managing pitcher workloads as the end of the season approaches, and how they plan to handle the starting rotation down the stretch to get everyone through the end of the schedule.

Of course none of the starters want to be shut down early, but with a number of the young arms in the rotation, Martinez and his coaches are watching them closely.

For Mitchell Parker, 24, who before last night made 26 starts since he was called up to make his MLB debut in mid-April, Martinez said he and the lefty have talked about getting through a full season of starts.

Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

“I talked to Mitchell in Pittsburgh about a few things,” Martinez said, “… but I asked him how he’s feeling, and he said, ‘Physically, I’m feeling really, really good.’ But, with that being said, September is a lot of the mental game. People are playing for different reasons, they got to stay focus on what they are doing and what they’ve done to get them to September, and really understand that mentally it’s a grind as well as physically. It really is.”

Parker, a 2020 5th Round pick, had a 4.43 ERA, a 3.89 FIP, 39 walks (2.58 BB/9), 122 Ks (8.07 K/9), and a .259/.309/.418 line against in 136 innings before taking on Miami’s Marlins in the series opener in D.C. (after he threw 124 innings total in minor league action last season).

While Martinez doesn’t want Parker thinking about the big picture just yet, but he did talk in his recent discussions with the southpaw about what he’s accomplished and where there is room for improvement.

“My big thing with Mitchell was I told him, ‘You’re really good when we focus on the day at hand, and what you need to do that day.

“Let’s continue to focus on that and don’t worry about the end game.’

“The end game is coming, everybody knows that. ‘Let’s focus on the process instead of the result.’ And that’s what he was really good at in the beginning.”

“When he was really good,” Martinez continued, “… he just focused on what he needed to do to get outs. And not worry about the results so much.

“But we need to get him back to that. And I told him, I said, ‘Hey, I’m just letting you know now, you’ve been really good. I can be honest with you, I didn’t expect you to be here so soon. When things happened, we called upon you to come up here, and you’ve done really well for us.

“‘For your first stint, you’ve been amazing. So, let’s keep it going and get you ready for next year.’”

Parker worked around an error in the first, retired the Marlins in order in the second, but ran into trouble in the third, with a HBP, a throwing error on a fielder’s choice, an RBI groundout, and sac fly putting two runs up for the visitors after the Nationals jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

With the score 3-2 in Miami’s favor, Parker settled in and retired eight straight before giving up a one-out single in the sixth he stranded two batters and two outs later, giving him 10 of 11 set down after the third.

A one-out single in the seventh ended Parker’s outing, an efficient 76-pitch appearance in which he gave up three hits and the two (unearned) runs, striking out five of the 25 hitters he faced, with 14 called strikes (8 on his splitter) and seven called strikes (5 on his curve).

“Mitchell did pitch that well after struggling 3-4 outings,” Martinez said after a 6-3 loss to the Fish.

“He was good. He did everything we asked in-between the starts. The fastball was good, split was really good, but he got us into the seventh inning.”

What was it they asked Parker to focus on between outings?

“To go back to who he was, which is you got to pitch in, you’ve got to pitch up. You’ve got to find your splitter, and understand how to use it again, and stay within yourself.

“Don’t get rattled, just stay within yourself, and he did a good job today.”

Martinez stayed with his starter into the seventh, with a 3-2 lead, and went to the pen when he gave up a hit in the seventh.

“He was throwing the ball really well, keeping them off-balance, his fastball was good,” the seventh-year manager said.

“His fastball was good, fastball location was good, and he pitched in for the first time in a few starts. So that was encouraging.”

“He threw the ball up when he needed to, which he’s really good at, but his split was really good.”

“I’ve been pressing the last couple starts, and that’s just not who I am,” Parker told reporters in his own post game comments, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“We had a good conversation and worked on it this last week between starts. Came out for the game and just did what we normally do.”

ALSO THIS:

Dylan Crews went 2 for 4 with an RBI single and a run scored in last night’s 6-3 loss to the Marlins, and as the Nationals highlighted in their post game notes, the 22-year-old rookie has, “… now reached base safely in 12 of his first 15 games and hit safely in nine of the 15.”

Crews also did this:

In his weekly visit with 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s Sports Junkies this week, GM and President of Baseball Ops, Mike Rizzo, talked about what he’s seen from the 2023 1st Round pick (2nd in the draft) since he made his MLB debut last month.

Crews has a .241/.308/.448 line, three doubles, and three home runs in 15 games and his 65 plate appearances so far, and Rizzo said his talent is evident.

“I think he’s shown his skillset very clearly and it’s the consistency that needs improvement, like just about every young player that we’ve ever had here,” Rizzo told the Junkies.

“He’s got the skillset and the temperament and the makeup to be a successful big-time player in the big leagues. And I think he’s done terrific in a very short [span]. I think he’s shown everything he needs to show that [prove] he belongs here. And now he has to deal with the consistency angle and the everyday stuff of this major league season.

“He’s got a lot to learn, just scratching the surface, but I think he’s gonna be a really good player for us.”