Manzano graduate Mitchell Parker slated to start for Washington on Sunday

WASHINGTON — There are pluses to living and working in the nation’s capital, and Manzano High graduate Mitchell Parker hopes to take advantage of that again this baseball season.

Last year Parker and his wife, Hayleigh, lived in the District of Columbia after he was called up from Triple-A Rochester to make his Major League debut on April 15, 2024.

Their apartment was about a 15-minute walk from the iconic Lincoln Memorial, which they would visit on occasion.

“I hope this year we can go to the National Air and Space Museum and to the (International) Spy Museum,” the Albuquerque native said.

Parker, 25, had another memorable moment here on Thursday as he was part of an Opening Day roster at the MLB level for the first time.

“My first flyover,” he said, standing by his locker after the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Nationals.

A military flyover was just one part of the pregame festivities at Nationals Park, located about four miles south of the U.S. Capitol and nearly three miles southeast of the White House.

A large American flag was unfurled in the outfield before the first pitch by military personnel, long-time season ticket holders (this is the 20th anniversary season of the club) were able to go on the field and long-time Washington Post baseball writer/columnist and author Tom Boswell — who will be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer — threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Taking all of that in was Parker — thousands of miles from his New Mexico roots.

“I was definitely very excited about my first Opening Day,” said Parker, as his wife waited for him in the family area outside of the Washington clubhouse.

Parker, a lefty, is slated to start for the Nationals against the Phillies on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 11:35 a.m. MDT.

His mound opponent on Sunday will be right-hander Aaron Nola, who finished third in the National League Cy Young award voting in 2018, won 14 games last year and has 104 MLB victories. Aaron’s brother, catcher Austin Nola, plays for the Albuquerque Isotopes this season.

Parker will be hard-pressed to match the Opening Day outing teammate MacKenzie Gore had on Thursday.

The left-hander struck out 13 batters in six innings of work. That is the most of any Nationals’ starter on Opening Day, and the list of previous pitchers to get the nod in the first game includes Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, the MVP of the 2019 World Series.

“It is kind of one of those special days,” Gore said. “I really don’t even know how to describe the feeling. But it was cool, so it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun.”

“He had an amazing start,” Parker said of Gore, who is 26.

The Phillies struck out 19 times but still won 7-3 with four runs in the top of the 10th off the Washington bullpen. It was the most strikeouts by a team that still managed to win on Opening Day.

So how will Parker attack the Phillies, with a lineup that includes Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber?

“The same thing with every start — I will go out there and compete,” he said.

Parker is part of a young core of Washington players, including starting pitchers.

“You are seeing our young players develop at the big league level,” Washington general manager Mike Rizzo told mlb.com last September. “We have four starters (in the rotation) who have one or fewer years of service in the big leagues. More or less, we are running four rookie starters (Gore, Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz) out there each time we go through the rotation. I see those guys getting better each and every time. They have the stuff to pitch here. They have made jumps when it comes to the command of their stuff. We are working on pitch shapes and adding different pitches — changeups for some of them. They have competed all year with good stuff and they are taking strides to get better each and every start.”

Herz was placed on the 60-day injured list on Wednesday.

Parker was drafted by the Nationals in 2020 in the fifth round out of San Jacinto College in Texas.

One of his teammates in 2023 at Double-A Harrisburg was infielder Jackson Cluff, drafted in the sixth round out of BYU in 2019 by Washington.

“Mitch is a great teammate; seems like he’s always in a good mood,” Cluff wrote on Thursday. “But, when he takes the mound he is intense. It’s a great feeling when he has the ball in his hand because I know he is going to give it everything he has every outing. More times than not he’s going to be the one that comes out on top.”

Parker made one start for Triple-A Rochester at the start of last season, then was called up to join the Washington rotation. He was 7-10 with an ERA of 4.29 in 29 starts last season for the Nationals.

As he has done for several offseasons, Parker worked out at an indoor facility in Albuquerque.

Now he is ready for his first start of the 2025 season — and hoping to build off the outing by Gore.

“Everything looks good,” said Parker, who felt positive about a spring training that included 12 1/3 innings pitched against MLB foes. “As we always say, pitching is contagious.”

Gore joined Hall of Famer Bob Gibson as the only pitchers in history with 13 strikeouts and no walks in a scoreless performance on Opening Day.

David Driver covered the Nationals from 2013-22 for various publications, including the World Series year of 2019 for the Washington Times. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Driver can be reached at daytondavid.com