Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker in Coors Field; Nats drop back & forth battle to Rockies, 8-7

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ second game of three in Coors Field…

PARKER IN COORS:

Mitchell Parker walked 167 batters (4.56 BB/9) in 76 games, 72 starts, and 329 ²⁄₃ innings of work on the mound in the minors over four seasons, before the Nationals’ 24-year-old, 2020 5th Round pick made his debut in the majors earlier this year.

After he tossed six strong against Miami last week in the nation’s capital, without allowing a walk, Washington’s rookie left-hander had 2.00 BB/9 on the season, in 12 starts and 67 ²⁄₃ IP as a big league starter.

“It’s hard to win a ballgame when you’re giving up free baserunners,” Parker said after facing the Marlins.

“Things are going to happen. So if we can keep guys off base as much as we can and make them earn it to get on there, good things happen for us.”

Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Parker, according to his manager, Davey Martinez, has taken the message the club had for him back in Spring Training 2024 to heart.

“This all started in Spring Training,” the seventh-year skipper told reporters, when he told Parker it was fairly simple: “‘Hey, you limit your walks, you’ll pitch in the major leagues.’

“His stuff was always good, ‘But you got to limit your walks. No free passes up here. It’ll get you.’

“And he’s done the job. He understands, ‘Hey, I got to throw strikes.’ And he’s always around the plate, and he’s giving us the innings we need and he’s pitching really well.”

Before the second of three with the Rockies on Saturday, Martinez was asked about what has allowed the left-hander to do what he has done over the last two months.

“It goes back beyond the two months,” the manager said. “When I first saw him, I loved his calmness. Nothing seems to rattle him. He’s very even-keeled throughout. When he pitches, in the clubhouse, when he’s working out in-between the starts, and I love that about him. He goes out there and he’s got a really slow heartbeat, he stays in the moment, which I love, but he’s been that guy, he’s been that constant. He knows what he needs to do, he’s very talented, he’s very smart — he reads everything we give him, he watches videos, he knows how he wants to attack hitters, so he’s been really good.”

Parker took the mound in Coors Field in Colorado last night with a 3.06 ERA, a 3.53 FIP, the 2.00 BB/9, and 6.65 K/9 on the year.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Keeping the walks in check has made a big difference for the southpaw.

“It’s huge,” Parker said.

“It’s giving up free bases, it’s hard, especially here, you walk a guy, somebody gets a hit, things happen quick, so if we can limit the amount of guys we have on base, that’s huge.”

Parker gave up one run early, on three singles in the first, with the Rockies rallying with one down, with an Ezequiel Tovar single, a Ryan McMahon hit, and after a force at second got the second out, an RBI single by Jacob Stallings which put the home team up 1-0 early in the middle game of the three-game series.

In the third, it was a one-out walk to Tovar, a single by McMahon, and a three-run home run by Brendan Rogers, who made the first of Parker’s two free passes in the game hurt.

Rogers hit a 436 ft. shot off Parker, on a first-pitch fastball up in the zone.

After the home run, which put the Rockies up 4-2, Parker retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced, striking out five straight after a one-out walk in the fifth.

He finished the night with six hits, two walks, and four earned runs allowed in a 98-pitch, 66-strike outing in which he struck out eight of the 25 batters he faced, with 13 swinging strikes, nine on his curve, and 15 called strikes, eight on his fastball in what ended up a disappointing 8-7 loss which concluded with a bases-loaded, pitch clock violation by the Nationals’ closer, Kyle Finnegan.

NOTES:

• With the first of three hits CJ Abrams connected for last night, a leadoff double in the 3rd, the Nationals’ shortstop extended a hit streak to 13-straight games. Abrams doubled on a curve on the outside edge, low, from righty Cal Quantrill, lining it to center field in his first plate appearance, then hit HR No. 12 of the 2024 season to lead off the fifth, on a 2-2 cutter low in the zone (a 411 ft. blast) he hit out to right-center.

Abrams hit a game-tying RBI single in the seventh for his third hit of the game.

• Before last night, Finnegan hadn’t blown a save opportunity since May 18th, but he didn’t retire a single batter in the ninth inning last night, with four straight singles which tied the game up at 7-7, and then the pitch clock violation on what would have been ball four of his bases-loaded at-bat against Ryan McMahon.

“Hey, look, I’m proud of the guys. They came back, they were down, they battled back, we took the lead,” Davey Martinez said after the loss.

“I’ll put those guys in every time when we’ve got the lead like that, so just come back and get them tomorrow.”

It wasn’t just Finnegan who struggled. Jacob Barnes gave up a home run in the seventh, and Harvey gave up a run in the eighth as well, before Finnegan was charged with two runs on a total of four hits.

“I think he leads the league in violations, so you’ve got to have some awareness,” Martinez said after the loss.

“He could have stepped off. It’s a tough situation, but it’s something that he’s got to be mindful of.”

Why is it happening to Finnegan repeatedly?

“He’s just slow. That’s who he is. He’s a closer. It burnt him today, but typically it hasn’t burnt him. It’s something he’s got to be mindful of it,” Martinez said.