Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop opener with Phillies; Mitchell Parker rocked in CBP…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ series opener with the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park…

LIMIT MISTAKES; MAKE GOOD PITCHES; NOT GIVE MORE THAN 27 OUTS:

Coming off a split of their two-game set with the Baltimore Orioles (72-50) in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and going up against the Philadelphia Phillies (70-50) in Citizens Bank Park, Davey Martinez knew his club would have to play a clean game, if they were going to hang with their NL East rivals, who’d won 5 of 6 between the teams going into the series.

“This team here, offensively, you can’t make too many mistakes. They’re going to get you,” Martinez told reporters in his pregame press conference.

“They got — that whole lineup can hit the ball out of the ballpark. We’ve got to make good pitches. We’ve got to play good defense. We can’t allow them to have more than 27 outs.

“So we’ve got play hard.”

It didn’t quite work out for the (now 55-67) Nationals, who dropped the series opener by a final score of 13-3.

Martinez’s club scored the three runs on eight hits, two of them solo home runs by Keibert Ruiz, went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and six left on base, made three errors in the field, and on the hill, lefty Mitchell Parker got hit hard and was out early, surrendering 10 hits, two of them home runs, two walks, and nine runs total, all earned, throwing 72 pitches, 48 for strikes, over his three-plus innings of work.

Alex Bohm hit an 0-1 fastball up and in out to left field for a three-run home run in the home-half of the first, a 403 ft. shot, then Nick Castellanos hit an 0-1 splitter up and over the heart of the plate 380 ft. to left field for a solo shot in the next at-bat, and it was 4-0 Philly early in the first of four in CBP.

Parker worked around a walk in the second, and struck out the side in the third, then gave up five-straight hits and four more runs to start the fourth, before his manager went to the bullpen, with the final run on his line scoring two batters later.

“Location,” Martinez said, summing up Parker’s struggles succinctly. “He threw a lot of balls up, a lot of breaking balls up.”

“They were all up. He threw a couple fastballs up there by design, that really didn’t — it was the breaking balls he couldn’t get down. His splitter wasn’t as effective as it normally is, it was just up. Every time he threw it up, he got hit pretty good. Hopefully this is a learning process for him. He’s got to understand, especially in this ballpark, you’ve got to keep the ball down.”

Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

“Some days you get beat,” Parker told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco after the game. “I feel today, I just got beat. Everything felt good, but they’re a great team, and they did everything right today.”

The Nationals?

“As we talked about earlier today, two things that can’t happen: We can’t give away outs, and we can’t make pitching mistakes. Today, we did both,” Martinez said.

“He needs to forget about this one, learn from it, and move on. We all do,” he added.

His manager said he thought Parker would be able to move on from the outing and build for his next turn in the rotation.

“Look, he gave up four, he settled down, and then he came back up once again, everything got away from him a little bit, but he’s a kid that I saw him at the end there, and you could tell that he was a little bit frustrated, but I know that come tomorrow, he’ll get back on his routine and be ready to go again when it’s his turn to pitch.”

Parker and the rest of the club, Martinez said, need to put this one behind them and move on.

“This one I’m going to flush, and come back tomorrow and be ready to play tomorrow.”

BONUS WOOD TALK:

Davey Martinez talked after James Wood’s four-hit game in the first of two with the Orioles this week, about the 21-year-old outfielder’s development at the plate since he debuted in the majors earlier this season.

“We talked about him all the time just staying in the middle of the field. He’s really good. I’m very proud of him, because it was left-handed at-bats, against lefties,” for all four of Wood’s hits, “and he really focused on getting the ball up and staying in the middle of the field, and he had a great day.”

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Wood finished the game with a .283/.369/.449 line, five doubles, three triples, and four HRs in 37 games and 157 plate appearances.

“I always talk about how smart he is when it comes to hitting. He has a plan, he learns from each at-bat, each swing what he needs to do, and tonight is an indication of what he really can be. He stayed on every ball, he got the ball up, and he stayed in the middle of the field.”

A reporter wondered if Martinez and Wood, a Rockville, MD native, talked about the young major leaguer watching games in Oriole Park as a kid and what it meant to him to be in the majors in Camden Yards now.

“Nice try,” Martinez said. “He’s a National. Alright? He actually — he told me he loves coming here. It’s probably where he grew up really, watching baseball. But I love having him.”

Wood went 0 for 4 with two Ks in the second of two with the O’s, but Martinez said he’d try to learn from that too.

“He’s doing well,” the manager said. “He really is. He’s doing well. He’ll learn from today, and we’ll go to Philly, he’ll get right back on that horse, and here we go again.

“It’s thrilling to see him getting better each day,” Rizzo told the Junkies. “He’s bringing a major league routine to the ballpark every day, getting better in left field. The bat was pretty foolproof in the minor leagues and he’s already made some adjustments with his swing and his approach at the plate.

“Not only the results and the performance on the field, when he hits the ball it’s hit as hard as anybody in the game. His exit velocity are elite, the ball sounds different coming off his bat than a lot of other players. We’re thrilled with where he’s at as a player and as a big leaguer. And we’re just watching in wonderment that this guy is just scratching the surface of what he can be at the end of the day.”

Photo by Diamond Images via Getty Images

“It’s thrilling to see him getting better each day,” GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told the Junkies before the finale with the Orioles.

“He’s bringing a major league routine to the ballpark every day, getting better in left field.

“The bat was pretty foolproof in the minor leagues,” Rizzo added, “and he’s already made some adjustments with his swing and his approach at the plate.

“Not only the results and the performance on the field, when he hits the ball it’s hit as hard as anybody in the game. His exit velocity are elite, the ball sounds different coming off his bat than a lot of other players. We’re thrilled with where he’s at as a player and as a big leaguer. And we’re just watching in wonderment that this guy is just scratching the surface of what he can be at the end of the day.”