Mitchell Parker emerges for the Nationals in a stress-free win (2024)

And yet Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, in a 6-0 win over the Houston Astros, he was dominant. He turned in the kind of start that makes baseball fans shift from wondering “Who is Mitchell Parker?” to scrambling for the answer. For an organization that is still searching for young arms to guide its rotation, Parker was always going to matter. Now that he’s here, it couldn’t have gone much better.

In seven scoreless innings Sunday in his second career start, the 24-year-old left-hander allowed just three hits with eight strikeouts and no walks. He looked even better than that.

“He went four, he went five, and we pushed him to seven,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “I was biting my lip, but I just couldn’t do it to him.”

And then the kicker.

“Because we need him for the long haul.”

So who, exactly, is Mitchell Parker?

We will need some time to dig for answers, if only because, after dispatching two of baseball’s most potent lineups in beating the Los Angeles Dodgers and now the Astros, Parker — answering questions from the locker he inherited, which just so happens to be Stephen Strasburg’s old spot in the clubhouse — remains subdued, sports a quiet smile and doesn’t give much away.

What we have learned from two starts is that he has a routine. That his hand and his bleach blond glove rise high above his head between pitches, his hands landing in front of his face before his windup. That, in the rare instances in which he has had to pitch from the stretch, he has a Craig Kimbrel-esque lean. He’s still nervous before games and trying to think less.

Crucially, he knew how to locate his four-seam fastball, curveball and splitter, the last of which he’s still trying to throw with consistency but nevertheless generated seven whiffs. He doesn’t throw harder than the average starter in the majors or harder than the average starter for Washington (10-11), but he was plenty good enough to make the Astros (7-16) contort their bodies as they tried — and failed — to barrel him up.

The top four hitters in Houston’s lineup, who have more combined all-star appearances (14) than Parker has MLB innings pitched (12), went 0 for 12 against him. Jose Altuve, greeted by boos for the third straight game and still every bit the superstar who led the Astros to two World Series titles and two more American League pennants, struck out twice.

Inning after inning, Parker went out and threw strikes, and the Astros swung through them or did little when they did connect. His pitch count remained remarkably low. He needed just 73 pitches, dotting 57 for strikes, to make it through seven innings.

“Nerves are working on settling down,” Parker said. “Throwing strikes got me here, so try not to change anything and keep attacking the guys.”

Funny enough, his showing puts the Nationals in a tough spot — once Gray returns, do they shift to a six-man rotation? Trevor Williams seemed to be a candidate to head to the bullpen, but his ERA is 2.91 after four starts. Patrick Corbin, if history holds, appears unlikely to leave the rotation, barring an injury. Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin aren’t going anywhere, either.

“He’s going to get his next start,” Martinez said of Parker. “We hope that Josiah Gray gets healthy soon, he comes back and then we’ll have some decisions to make. But so far he’s done really well.”

Washington took care of its offense early. Within four plate appearances, it had three runs, with the top of the order continuing to ascend as CJ Abrams (whose OPS climbed to 1.034) and Jesse Winker (up to .946) got on base ahead of Luis García Jr.’s two-run single. The Nationals pushed two more runs across in the fifth on Joey Meneses’s single, and another came from Nick Senzel, who hit his first homer of the season an inning later and said he’s starting to find his rhythm. The Nationals, too, are finding a groove, posting three series wins in their past four.

“To be able to hit a ball hard and get a result like that felt really good,” Senzel said. “You hope they come in bunches.”

Here’s what else to know about the Nationals’ win:

Martinez said there’s a bug going around the clubhouse and catcher Keibert Ruiz is finally recuperating from it. Before Sunday’s game, Martinez said Ruiz, who is on the injured list, lost 18 to 20 pounds after contracting the flu but will soon join one of the Nationals’ affiliates — likely Class AA Harrisburg — on a short rehabilitation assignment.

Ruiz last played April 8 at San Francisco. He is hitting .194.

Despite the significant weight loss, Ruiz said he feels better, lighter and ready to return. During his absence, he has been working with the hitting machine and on his defense, and he began doing some running Sunday. He also has been lifting weights, though they’re lighter than usual.

Ruiz said the toughest adjustment has been mental, not wanting to miss so much time, but he joked that he wanted to take positives from it.

“I feel like I can run better, move better, and I gain weight fast, too,” he said. “So I’ll eat a couple of burgers.”