LHP Mitchell Parker boasts an impressive 2-0 record with strong performances in his early career. Notably, these wins came against top-tier baseball teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston
Washington D.C. - In a season mainly focused on identifying the future players of the Washington Nationals, the team might have found another gem within the rocks to add to their starting rotation: LHP Mitchell Parker.
In his Major League Baseball debut back against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Parker had to navigate some great hitters to start the game: Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, and Freddie Freeman. In his first appearance with the Nationals, he pitched 5.0 innings, striking out four, walking one and only giving up two runs on four hits. He pitched a total of 81 pitches, 52 strikes.
Yesterday, in his second start of his career and first appearance at Nationals Park, Parker had to navigate through another lineup that included Jose Altuve, Alex ,Bregman Yordan Alvarez and some other power
Yesterday Parker went 7.0 innings of shout out baseball, and only gave up three hits, struck out eight on 73 pitches with 57 of them being strikes.
Altogether, so far, he is 2-0, with an ERA of 1.50, striking out 12 across 12.0 innings pitched.
“He is a real player development success story,” Mike Rizzo, GM and President of Baseball Operations, told Audacy’s The Sports Junkies on 106.7 the FAN. “This guy was a hard-throwing, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks-type of guy coming out of junior college, and we’ve really defined his delivery, we’ve really improved his athleticism and his mechanics and allowed him to find the strike zone at a rate where he can be successful with his stuff.”
Rizzo continued, “He’s got a hammer curve, he’s got a split-finger, and his issue throughout his amateur career and the early pro days was throwing quality strikes, and I think when you see the pitching coaches in the minor leagues and our pitching coordinators have told him throughout the years, ‘You’ve got to pound the strike zone,’ and ‘Your stuff doesn’t play unless you can make it play over the plate.”
Making his way up through the Nationals system, Parker has flown under the radar as big-name pitching prospects such as Cade Cavalli, Jackson Rutledge, and others have become prominent throughout the Nationals websphere. Maybe that is a good thing.
Owen Ranger • Apr 22, 2024
The Senators came back home this week for their first full series of the year and wound up splitting their six games with the AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, the Richmond Flying Squirrels. There were no true standout performers this week either on the plate or on the mound, and the most concerning bit of news from central Pennsylvania is that Dylan Crews exited Wednesday’s game a couple innings after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning…and did not play in any of the remaining four games. There have been no updates on his status, but ideally he will be back out there tomorrow in Erie.
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“He did really well,” Martinez said after the five-inning, 81-pitch outing in which Parker gave up four hits and two runs, striking out four without walking a batter and getting the win in front of 42,677 fans at Dodger Stadium, “The kid has a very low heartbeat, I’ve know that for a while.”
Yesterday, getting the second win of his young career, the 24-year-old starter tossed seven scoreless innings on just 73 pitches and 57 strikes, striking out eight and walking no one (again) in what ended up being a 6-0 win.
Parker got 13 swings, seven misses on his splitter, and 12 swinging strikes overall, with 14 called strikes, seven each on his fastball and curve. How unique is that? According to the Nationals, Mitchell Parker became the fifth pitcher in Major League history to strike out at least 12 hitters and not issue a walk in the first two games of his career, and Parker became the first Washington National to throw 7.0-shutout innings on fewer than 75 pitches (73 pitches). Additionally, Parker is the first pitcher to throw 7.0 shutout innings on 73 or fewer pitches since Atlanta's Kyle Wright on August 24, 2022, at Pittsburgh.
After winning yesterday’s game and taking two out of three against the Astros, Manager Davey Martinez discussed Parker’s willingness to pound the strike zone and be effective: “He’s pounding the strike zone. He’s been unbelievable. Both outings, he’s really attacking the strike zone, and that’s awesome.”
Paker also realized how important it is to pitch inside the strike zone effectively: “Really, it was more of just a mental thing,” Parker said of his willingness to pound the zone, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
In yesterday’s 6-0 win against the Astros, Parker threw just 6% splitters in that outing. This was up to 25% in his second start.
“When his [splitter] is on like it was today, he can be really effective… We saw him in LA. His [splitter] wasn’t very good, and I told him to axe it, and just go curveball/fastball, and he did really well just doing that. Today his [splitter] was good, he threw it, and he threw very [effectively].” Martinez added after the game.
The most important thing for Parker and the Washington Nationals is for him to continue to be successful and constant and he might earn a spot in the Nationals pitching rotation for the remainder of the season.
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