Washington Nationals news & notes: Mitchell Parker solid again; Nats lose again, 5-2 Braves

Notes and quotes from the first of four with Atlanta in D.C.

Braves’ starter (and former Nationals’ prospect) Reynaldo López gave up two home runs in his first 62 innings on the mound this season, then he gave up two in back-to-back at-bats Thursday night in the nation’s capital, though unfortunately for Washington, they were the only two runs the club scored in a 5-2 loss to Atlanta.

CJ Abrams (10) hit a 93 MPH 0-2 fastball up in the zone 412 ft. to right field in Nationals Park after five scoreless by López, who limited the Nats to the two runs on six hits total, and next it was Lane Thomas (4), who hit a high 1-2 slider to left-center for a 410 ft. blast which made it a 2-0 game in the home team’s favor.

Nationals’ starter Mitchell Parker held the Braves off the board through six, then he gave up a leadoff single by Marcell Ozuna in the top of the seventh inning, and then a one-out, two-run home run by Adam Duvall, whose 6th of the season tied the game up at 2-2.

Parker got the next two outs, to get through the seventh, then Hunter Harvey came on and got two outs before giving up a double by Ozzie Albies, an RBI single by Austin Riley, and a two-run home run by Ozuna, 5-2 in the eighth.

With his 10th straight starts with 3 ER or fewer to begin his career, Parker became the first pitcher in Nationals’ history (2005-present) to manage that feat.

Stephen Strasburg and Mike O’Connor, both of whom went nine starts with 3 ER or fewer, were the previous record holders as the Nationals’ Communications Department noted in their X/Twitter post after last night’s game:

In his second start against the Braves in three outings, (after Parker held Atlanta’s hitters to three runs on five hits in 6 ¹⁄₃ IP in Truist Park on May 27th), the southpaw got just four total swinging strikes, with 13 called strikes, nine on his fastball, seven groundouts, and six fly ball outs from the 25 batters he faced.

“Mitchell pitched really good. That answers the question facing a team, right, twice,” Davey Martinez said when the manager spoke with reporters after the Nats’ fourth straight loss.

“He did well. Pitched really well. He went seven innings, with 71 pitches, but in that situation you give the ball to Harvey and [Kyle] Finnegan to close out the game, but [Parker] did his job.”

Parker’s efficiency and consistency early in his big league career have impressed Martinez.

“When he’s on, he’s going to pump strikes,” the skipper said.

“What happens is, if you notice, they start — the swings start becoming — they start swinging, they go up there swinging at the first pitch. He’s going to be around the plate.

“We talk about that all the time. He did that tonight. He was pounding the strike zone, they were aggressive, he got early outs, so it was awesome. He pitched really, really well.”

The club’s offense struggled to get much going, with just six hits, four of them singles, in the loss.

Martinez said he thought Abrams and Thomas’s home runs might spark things in his lineup, but it didn’t happen.

“I thought once we scored that run, then Lane came and hit the home run, and then it was boom, boom, boom, that it would be a trickle effect,” Martinez said.

“It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. It’s good to see CJ hitting the ball like he did, Lane hitting the ball like he did.”

Abrams’ home run was a welcome blast for the Nationals and their shortstop, who was 3 for 25 in the previous six games, with a double, a walk, and 10 Ks in 26 plate appearances over that stretch. He struck out the first two times up against López, expressing some frustration after the first K according to his manager.

“The first one, yes. After the second one, no,” Martinez said. “And his third at-bat, he walked by and said: ‘I’ve got him this time.’ And he did.

“My thing was just get ready early, and he did, he got him. Hopefully that will get him going a little bit.”

And the offense overall?

“We’ve got to be on time,” the manager said. “We’ve got to be ready to hit the fastball, and everything else will handle itself. The big key is give yourself a chance to hit every pitch.

“When they do that, they can hit. And they’re really good.”