Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker vs the Mets; Nats drop 10-1 decision in Citi Field

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ lopsided 10-1 loss to the Mets last night…

The focus going into Mitchell Parker’s 27th start this season was returning to what was working for the rookie left-hander early in his time in the Nationals’ rotation.

Parker tossed 6 ¹⁄₃ innings against Miami’s Marlins, giving up three hits and two (unearned) runs, walking no one, and striking out five of the 25 batters he faced.

“He was throwing the ball really well,” manager Davey Martinez said after a 6-3 loss to the Fish in which Parker received no decisions. “Keeping them off-balance, 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.”

The focus leading up to the outing?

“To go back to who he was, which is you got to pitch in, you’ve got to pitch up,” Martinez added. “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.”

Parker’s start was an efficient, 76-pitch appearance in which he got 14 swinging strikes (8 on his splitter) and seven called strikes (5 on his curve).

“I’ve been pressing the last couple starts, and that’s just not who I am,” Parker said, 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.”

Parker worked around a one-out single in the first and leadoff single in the second for two scoreless to start last night in Citi Field, in the second of three for Washington in Flushing, Queens, NY, but after his teammates gave him a 1-0 lead (and left the bases loaded in the top of the third), five straight Mets reached base to start the bottom of the inning (a walk, RBI double, single, walk, two-run single), 3-1, and a sac fly made it 4-1 before he finally got out of the frame.

He gave up a leadoff home run in the Mets’ fourth, and was lifted after surrendering a two-out single.

Parker ended up going just 3 ²⁄₃ innings (7 H, 2 BB, 5 ER) on 78 pitches, 45 of them strikes, with just four swinging and 11 called strikes in the outing.

“I just wasn’t executing pitches,” Parker said after what ended up a 10-1 loss, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “I was getting to two strikes and not able to put anything away.

“And you can’t walk two guys and expect not to have anything bad happen, especially against a team like this.”

“His stuff was good, he just couldn’t control the strike zone. Fell behind a lot. Built his pitch count up pretty high for three innings,” Martinez said told reporters.

“He fell behind, he got behind, couldn’t get ahead, and then you got to pump strikes, and those guys can hit. HIs stuff — his fastball was good, his changeup was good, but just up in the zone, but just fell behind.”

Asked what he’s made of Parker’s rookie campaign as a whole, to this point, the skipper said it’s been a mixed bag.

“He started off really, really well. Towards the middle there he kind of got into a little funk. He got better. A couple outings before this one were better, this one, just, like I said, the pitch count got up there. HIs stuff was still good, he just couldn’t find the strike zone.”

ALSO THIS:

Also this… and a note, Dylan Crews had three hits last night. The Nationals had four total…