Last night, we got to see a version of Mitchell Parker that we’ve been longing for since late April, and it was awesome for those first 7.0 innings. He was shoved for another inning which we can all debate whether that was a good/bad idea. And it added drama as that 7-1 lead had turned to the Nats holding on for dear life with the winning run in the batter’s box in a 7-5 final score.
Parker had not gone deeper into a game since April 22nd, but he kept the Marlins’ offense at bay until he exited with bases loaded and 7⅔ innings in the books to earn the W and pace the Nationals to their fourth consecutive win — and seventh win in eight games. The teams best mark of the season.
This one got started a lot like how the first game of this series went, with another big hit by Josh Bell. After CJ Abrams and James Wood both reached base to lead off the game, Bell mashed his third home run of the series, and his fourth in the last three games, and this one put the Nationals ahead 3-0 before Adam Mazur could record an out.
The Marlins got one of their two runs against Mitchell Parker in the bottom of the second inning as Joey Weimer got a hanging curveball and made Parker pay for it, shooting it out over the left field fence to make this a 3-1 game.
The Nats added to the lead in the top of the fourth with some excellent situational hitting, Jacob Young drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, and later in the inning James Wood brought in another one on a groundout. That 5-1 lead lasted a whole one inning, as Daylen Lile led off the top of the fifth with his fifth major league home run, taking an inside fastball and turning on it to send it out to right field. The Nats got their last run of the game in the following inning on a sacrifice fly by Josh Bell, that took the score to 7-1, and as Parker continued to cruise, this one was in good shape until the 8th inning.
The Marlins loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and that’s when Miguel Cairo decided he’d seen enough, taking Parker out at 96 pitches and 7⅔ innings deep into the game. PJ Poulin came in and allowed an RBI single to Agustin Ramirez, but struck out the next hitter to get the game to the ninth inning with a 7-2 score.
- Mitchell Parker: 7.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 96 pitches
- Adam Mazur: 4.1 innings, 8 hits, 6 runs (4 earned), 3 walks, 1 strikeout, 96 pitches
Things got real dicey in the bottom of the ninth, as Cole Henry just didn’t have it last night. The Marlins got two runs closer on a two-run double by Victor Mesa that got out of the reach of James Wood which became another debatable point as to whether he should have caught the flyball. That double made it a 7-4 heart thumper, and Cairo was not messing around, going straight to Jose A. Ferrer to close this one out.
Even Ferrer looked a little bit shaky, albeit he should have been done in one hitter as Brady House made an error on a Javier Sanoja ball in play that would have ended the game with no further damage. The Marlins got one run closer on an RBI single by Xavier Edwards to make it 7-5, and just like that the fish had the tying run on first base, and the winning run at the plate in the form of their power hitting rookie Agustín Ramírez. And Ramirez grounded out thankfully, and the Nationals escaped with a big win for the club.
Positives last night were definitely highlighted by Mitchell Parker, who threw one of the best games of his young big league career, despite almost being put to waste by the bullpen. Offensively, the Nats got four multi-hit performances in this one, coming from CJ Abrams, James Wood (whose batting average is back up to .260), Daylen Lile, and Brady House.
Game three of this four game set will get started at 6:40 tonight, with Jake Irvin (8-11, 5.71 ERA) getting the ball against the hard-throwing righty Eury Perez (6-5, 4.66 ERA). Nationals fans have become quite fond of Mitchell Parker and Jake Irvin‘s start days, affectionately referring to them as ‘auto loss’ days, well we were wrong last night, let’s see if Jake can make us wrong again and extend this winning streak to five games.
