For the first time this season, the cleats on the mound in the eighth inning belonged to the Washington Nationals’ starting pitcher. Mitchell Parker and his two red Skechers, one pushing off the rubber and the other landing about seven feet down the mound, carried the Nationals to a 7-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday — a night that, frankly, they didn’t even need much carrying.
The dispatching began in a rather simple spot: Parker looked untouchable, allowing just one hit and two walks in eight scoreless innings, and the lineup was ablaze, knocking the sputtering Orioles around for 10 extra-base hits. These might have seemed like revelatory developments before the season. Perhaps they are becoming the new normal for the Nationals (10-13) — especially as it pertains to Parker.
With pitch No. 99 at Nationals Park, the left-hander got Jackson Holliday looking with a slider that touched the very top of the strike zone. Parker began his slow walk back to the dugout, took a big breath, removed his glove and looked up briefly to a standing ovation. Parker now boasts a 1.39 ERA, good for
seventh
in the majors among qualified starters.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “That’s the first time I’ve gone that deep into a game. So it’s definitely, definitely something to hold on to.”
The 25-year-old was a relative unknown when he arrived in the majors in April 2024. A fifth-round draft pick in 2020, he had a knack for soft contact in the minors, but it was coupled with an uncomfortably high walk rate that knocked him out of games early. Before his call-up, the Nationals weren’t sure whether he was a starter or a reliever in their long-term plan.
“He worked his tail off to get here,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “He had the stuff. The biggest thing with him was to be able to command the zone. … You can’t pitch up here if you’re walking guys. He went and worked on it. He worked on it. And he did really well.”
That uncertainty seems like a distant memory now. Parker has completed at least six innings in every outing this season. His strikeout rate remains low, but it hasn’t mattered because hitters are making such feeble contact. They haven’t slugged his high, rising fastball. They have grounded his splitter, curveball and slider into the grass or whiffed. And with runners on base, they haven’t touched him.
With runners in scoring position, opposing hitters entered 3 for 18 against Parker. On Tuesday, he painted the edge of the strike zone, rarely daring to dance too far down the middle or too far outside of it. He mustered just four strikeouts, but Baltimore still seemed hapless — almost nothing off the bat registered much of a sound. Cedric Mullins’s third-inning single was all the Orioles (9-13) mustered.
“Just not trying to overthink the game,” Parker said. “Just taking it one pitch at a time and not trying to look in the past or predict the future.”
“I saw it from the first inning,” catcher Keibert Ruiz said. “He was doing everything, getting ahead in the count, making pitches to put them away. He was really good. I’m really happy for him.”
Parker wasn’t alone in his exploits. James Wood, who entered as one of the most productive hitters in baseball, doubled twice and had three of the game’s four hardest-hit balls. Nathaniel Lowe slugged a two-run homer in the first inning to put the Nationals ahead and push his OPS closer to .900. In the sixth, Dylan Crews hit his third homer for a 6-0 edge as he begins to find his groove at the plate. Ruiz went 3 for 4 to bring his average up to .329; his seventh-inning double provided the final margin.
In other words: The players whom the Nationals are supposed to rely on did what they were supposed to do.
“You see your teammates out there getting extra-base hits and everything, it kind of gives you extra motivation to go out there and do your job,” José Tena (two doubles and a triple) said through an interpreter.
There has been a good bit of that early in the season. Washington entered this rivalry series with MLB’s 19th-best offense and its 14th-best starting pitching, even after
a shaky road trip
. That’s because foundational pieces, save for Luis GarcĂa Jr., are avoiding cold starts — and he singled twice and scored two times against Baltimore. The Nationals’ sub-.500 record, then, is a by-product of their bullpen, which has the highest ERA in MLB.
But Tuesday, Parker gave the Nationals length that required only a single inning of relief. Lefty Colin Poche and righty Cole Henry finished the job.
They accomplished these feats without two key pieces: shortstop CJ Abrams (right hip flexor strain) and right-hander Michael Soroka (right biceps strain), who began rehab assignments with Class AA Harrisburg. Abrams went 0 for 1 with a strikeout and two walks. Soroka went 2â…” innings; he allowed two hits, two runs and a walk as he struck out three.
The Orioles have the highest starting pitching ERA in baseball, and the Nationals capitalized against righty Dean Kremer. But the most important development was that they rode Parker while doing so, one bit of soft contact at a time.
