Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker not happy with outing; Nats lose to the Padres again, 12-3…

Notes and quotes from Wednesday’s game in Nationals Park…

PITCHING WOES:

Mitchell Parker’s final pre-All-Star break start was something of a disaster, an abbreviated ²⁄₃ of an inning outing in which the 24-year-old left-hander gave up three hits, two walks, and a total of five earned runs.

Parker got up to 47 pitches, 28 of them strikes, before his manager, Davey Martinez pulled the plug on the 17th start of the year by the rookie.

“It was the pitch count,” Martinez told reporters after the club picked their pitcher up and rallied from an 5-0 deficit for a win. “And — uncharacteristic to him, he wasn’t around the plate like he normally is. It was a lot of balls, a lot of foul balls, and I didn’t see it getting any better today. I thought, hey, let’s just get him out, get him a break, he gets the All-Star break, and let’s reset him and get him going.”

“Everything felt good on my part today,” Parker said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“It was just one of those days when I couldn’t execute everything. I got punished for it and wasn’t able to get out of the first. It sucks, but I’m going to be able to learn a lot from it.”

His skipper had some ideas about where to start addressing what went wrong for Parker.

“I’m going to look, but it looked like his arm slot was a little lower,” Martinez said, “… kind of pushing everything up, so I’m going to take a look at everything and see where he’s at, but after 40-something pitches, you expect him to get a little tired out there, so I chose to just get him out of there.”

Looking to bounce back from the outing, Parker took the mound last night in the nation’s capital, and gave up seven hits, three walks, and six earned runs in just three innings, in a 77-pitch, 49-strike turn in the rotation in which he got five swinging strikes, with 13 called strikes, seven on his fastball, and 20 of 77 pitches fouled off by Padres’ hitters in what was eventually a 12-3 loss for the home team.

‘Mitchell, if he got ahead, he got guys out,” Martinez said after the second consecutive loss to San Diego. “When he didn’t get ahead, everybody got on base. So we just got to get him to keep working ahead. He looked like he was a tick off with his mechanics, so we’re going to talk to him in the next couple days.”

“His stuff was good when he got ahead,” the manager reiterated at another point in his post game presser. “When he fell behind he just didn’t know how to get himself out of it. So we’ll get back and talk to him and see if we can get him straightened out.”

Parker’s take on his own outing?

“It sucks,” he said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “It’s not the game plan, not how we envisioned it going. It definitely wasn’t. It just sucks.”

CALEB LOMATIVA IN D.C.:

“Lomo’s been itching,” Nationals’ 2024 Draft pick Caleb Lomavita said in a brief moment of illeism in his introductory press conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, discussing the fact that he is currently in the midst of the longest stretch without baseball in years.

Lomavita, 21, “… hit .322 with 13 doubles, one triple, 15 home runs, 52 RBI[s], 12 walks, 12 stolen bases and 51 runs scored in 55 games,” for the University of California, Berkeley.

“He posted a .395 on-base percentage, [and a] .586 slugging percentage and was one of eight catchers in NCAA Division I with 10 or more stolen bases and 10 or more home runs,” the Nationals noted in a press release on the 39th overall pick in the draft, which they got from Kansas City in the trade for Hunter Harvey a day before the draft.

“We were happy that a talented one at Loma’s level was available at our pick,” VP, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas said after his first draft at the helm for the Nationals.

“It’s been a blast watching him since high school,” Haas said on Wednesday. “He’s been consistent as a high-energy … somebody said ‘warrior’ to me the other day. He’s gifted physically; obviously he’s very strong. But he will shock you with run times. He’s got a big arm. He shows up ready to play. … He’s pretty much everything we look for in a backstop.”

That they got the catcher with the 39th pick a day after they added it definitely caught the attention of their second pick of the draft.

“I’m a religious guy. I think God placed me in the perfect position, and everything will work out exactly as it needs to be,” Lomavita said of ending up with the Nationals.

“I’m already excited to get on the field,” he added, “and I’m glad it’s with an amazing team and organization.”

“He’s got a lot of energy,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez said before last night’s game. “I can’t wait to see him hit. Good kid though. I know he’s one of the guys that we were really looking at, and very surprisingly … we were able to pick him up when we did.”

“The process begins now,” GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo said as he too sat on the dais for the press conference. “His ascension to the big leagues starts tomorrow.

“He’ll hit the ground running, we’ll send him to West Palm [Beach, FL], he’ll get his feet on the ground, and we’ll build his foundation the right way.”

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