Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop 2nd of 3 in LA, 6-2 Dodgers; Mitchell Parker revisited+ more…

Notes and quotes from the 2nd of 3 with the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine…

QUICK “IF YOU DIDN’T STAY UP” RECAP:

Patrick Corbin gave up three runs over the first two innings last night on the road in Dodger Stadium, but Jesse Winker hit a full-count curve from Dodgers’ lefty Ryan Yarbrough 429 ft. to right-center in the top of the third to get the visiting Nationals within one run, 3-2 LA.

It was home run No. 2 on the season for Winker, whose .482 OBP going into the second of three in Los Angeles led all major league hitters, with the 30-year-old veteran reaching base in 13 of 15 games played on the year. He was ranked 5th in the NL in AVG (.354), 7th in OPS (1.004), led the Nationals in hits (17), and was second in walks (9) after Monday’s game. Not bad for a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.

Once Winker’s blast made it a one-run game, Corbin settled in, holding it there through four innings, but Kiké Hernández hit a 431-foot home run to center field off of the Nationals’ lefty in the fifth, adding to the Dodgers’ lead, 4-2.

Yarbrough retired 14-straight after Winker’s homer, taking the Dodgers into the seventh, and after the home team added to their lead in the bottom of the inning, 5-2, right-hander Joe Kelly retired two more, but CJ Abrams walked with two out in the eighth to end the streak of retired Nationals at 16 in a row. Winker got hit in the next at-bat to bring Lane Thomas up as the potential tying run, but the inning ended on a groundout to third base.

Mookie Betts (5 for 5), drove in another run in the bottom of the eighth, and the Dodgers set up a rubber match this afternoon with a 6-2 win.

MENESES SITS:

The day after Joey Meneses singled the first time up in Oakland on August 12th, then hit into a double play and grounded out twice (the first of the two groundouts with a runner on third base and two outs), Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked about the 31-year-old slugger’s struggles with the bat so far, and the ground ball outs from Meneses, early this season.

“He’s jumping at the ball,” Martinez explained. “We got to get him to relax a little bit and stay back and use his hands a little bit more.

“He’s getting out there really hard with his lower half, so give him a day today, he’s going to work on some stuff in the cage, and he’s going to be available to pinch hit later on, but we got to get him to stay back.”

Was Meneses, who debuted in the majors as a 30-year-old in 2022, and tore up opposing pitching as a rookie, with 14 doubles, 13 homers, and a .324/.367/.563 line over 56 games and 240 plate appearances, then struggled to hit for power (with 36 doubles, 13 homers, and a .275/.321/.401 line in 154 games and 657 PAs) in 2023, pressing given the slow start and his “unusual” career path to the big leagues?

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

“I worry about that about a lot of guys,” Martinez acknowledged. “This game is more mental than physical, when you’re not doing good and you feel like you’re not doing good, it kind of wears on you, but I’m trying to get these guys to relax. We’re only 14 games into the season, so forget about what happened in the past, and let’s focus today and be where our feet are and try to go 1-0 today.”

Meneses went 1 for 3 with a single the next day against the A’s in the finale in Oakland, but wasn’t penciled into the lineup for either of the first two this week in Dodger Stadium.

Meneses finished the final game against the A’s 10 for 49 on the year (.204/.298/.225) with one extra base hit (double), five walks, and 13 Ks in 13 games and 57 PAs.

“I have confidence in Joey that he’s going to hit,” Martinez said last night, before the second of three in LA, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“Right now, he is struggling. We’re trying to get him some early batting practice. He’s going to get back out there. But I’m thinking more about the young guys like Jacob Young and those guys that need to get at-bats and need to play. And also defense: Jacob really helps us out in the outfield. And [Jessie] Winker’s swinging the bat really well.”

Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images

So for now, Meneses sits, which he hasn’t done much since making his debut.

“I don’t want to sit Joey for too long. I want to get him back out there and get him some at-bats,” Martinez told reporters. “For me, it’s a good problem to have, and I’m able to mix and match and do some different things. I talked to him and told him: ‘This is not a punishment. I want you to get right. You’re going to get your at-bats.’ He’s done some good things for us the last couple years. I want to get him back out there.”

PARKER MANAGES EMOTIONS IN DEBUT:

Mitchell Parker, the Nationals’ 24-year-old, 2020 5th Round pick, went into his MLB debut on Monday night in Dodger Stadium hoping it would be the sort of outing he’d dreamed about while working his way up.

“Everybody thinks about what it will be your first time out there,” he acknowledged once he arrived in LA on Sunday. “Hopefully this exceeds everything we were dreaming about. So, it should be fun.”

Considering he went five innings on 81 pitches, striking out four and allowing just four hits and two earned runs against stacked Dodgers’ lineup, and became the first Nats’ rookie to win his MLB debut since Stephen Strasburg in 2010, it was probably a lot liked he dreamed it would go.

“It was a really good lineup, and all those guys are very, very good,” Parker said afterwards, as quoted by MLB.com’s Sarah Wexler.

“So the whole game is going to probably stick with me for a very long time.”

“After the first inning it seemed like he kind of settled down and by the fourth inning, he was like, ‘Hey, let’s go,’” manager Davey Martinez said in assessing Parker’s outing, after he’d said beforehand he felt confident the southpaw would handle the pressure and perform well in a difficult assignment.

It wasn’t without its challenges, however, as Martinez and the starter tried to manage all the adrenaline, emotions, and excitement that come with an MLB debut.

“I think sitting in-between the innings was getting to him a little bit. And then we went up to him in the fifth inning, just to see how he was, he wanted to go back out, which says a lot, but I had to be smart, and at 80 pitches, I thought that was plenty. He gave us five good innings.”

Why had the seventh-year skipper been so confident Parker would be able to handle himself out there in a challenging environment?

Martinez noted Parker hadn’t seemed fazed at all by the challenges in Spring Training, and he thought the lefty was prepared for the opportunity.

“The key was going to be after the first inning,” Martinez said, of facing the Dodgers’ brutal top three of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman.

“He’s going to get jittery, but he did really well. The kid has a very low heartbeat, I’ve know that for a while.

“And nothing seems to faze him, he’s going to go attack the zone … and he started getting his breaking ball over really well, and that really helped him out a lot.

“That’s a tough team to face, you know, and he did really, really well.”

Did the actual experience match what he’d dreamed of in the end?

“Imagining it and actually living through it are two very different things,” Parker explained, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “It was a special experience.”