Struggling Parker looking to finish the season on a high note for Nationals

WASHINGTON — Manzano High graduate Mitchell Parker, 25, stood by his locker in the Washington Nationals clubhouse on Wednesday before a game against the New York Mets, as he prepared to throw a bullpen session beyond the right field fence about four hours before the first pitch at Nationals Park.

But first the lefty starting pitcher had to change out of the red, white and blue basketball jersey that was adorned with the No. 70 — also his number with the Nationals. The basketball jersey was a gift from fellow Washington starting pitcher and 2025 National League All-Star MacKenzie Gore, who has made it a tradition to give his pitcher teammates a hoops jersey from a supplier in San Diego from his days with the Padres.

If Parker’s 2025 season with the Nationals was framed in basketball terms, the Albuquerque native would be going into the fourth quarter and looking to make a successful run to get back in the game.

“It has been an endless battle. We have had some good starts built in (between rough ones). Obviously, we are trying to build off the good ones,” said Parker, standing by his locker. “It is a long season.”

To start his second major league season, Parker did not allow a run in two of his first five outings of the year. He yielded just five earned runs in 32.1 innings during that span, capped by an impressive performance against the Baltimore Orioles on April 22, when he went eight innings and allowed zero runs on one hit, and his ERA on the year fell to 1.39.

But since then, the numbers have skewed in the opposite direction.

Parker, in his four starts this month, has given up 22 earned runs and, on Sunday at home against the Phillies, he lasted just 1.2 innings and gave up five earned runs and three walks in a loss. That left him with a mark of 7-13 and an ERA of 5.83 in 25 starts going into his outing this weekend, most likely on Saturday, in Philadelphia against the first-place Phillies.

“It’s crazy, we were talking about it: It’s always one inning that he gives up three or four runs, or five runs,” interim manager Miguel Cairo told reporters after Parker gave up eight runs and 12 hits in four innings in a loss to the Brewers on August 1. “And after that, he comes back and throws a good inning. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to fix that. That’s what we’re here for. We have to figure out how he can keep his composure and keep working inning-by-inning. It won’t be easy, but it’s going to be a challenge, and we’ve got to do our job.”

What are Parker’s goals for the rest of the season?

“(Be) healthy. Health is always a big one,” he said. “Get back into going deeper into games, and limiting the damage, and keep a good ballgame going.”

There have not been a lot of those this season for the Nationals, who were 51-75 after a 5-4 win on Wednesday against the Mets.

Washington is on track for its sixth straight losing season, and the Lerner ownership group fired long-time general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez — the Washington skipper since 2018 — in early July, just days before the amateur draft.

Rizzo and Martinez were the architects of the 2019 Washington team that won the World Series over the Houston Astros.

Now Mike DeBartolo — who has been with the organization since 2012 — is interim general manager while Cairo is the interim manager. According to reports, DeBartolo has a good chance of retaining the title, while it seems likely the Nationals will bring in another manager for 2026.

“At the end of the day, we have a job and still have to come in and compete and try to win ballgames,” Parker said of the overhaul. “It doesn’t change anything. It was a little different.”

“The fans are right to be frustrated,” DeBartolo told reporters when he got the new job in July. “We’re all frustrated. We have a lot of interesting, exciting, young pieces to build on. We have a lot more we need to build. Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need real change. I’m excited to bring a fresh approach, a fresh voice to this role, and integrate more data, more technology, more innovation into our decision-making across the organization at all levels and hopefully improve the performance of our players as well.”

Parker doesn’t feel pressure to impress new decision-makers with the club. “You are always trying to prove yourself. You are always trying to improve on things. It really doesn’t matter who is in there. You have to improve on everything,” he said.

Parker was 7-10 with an ERA of 4.29 in 29 starts as a rookie last season, throwing 151 innings. The lefty has gone 129.2 innings so far this season.

“I have no idea,” said Parker, when asked if the Nationals will limit his innings down the stretch. “I will keep going out on the mound until someone tells me otherwise. It does not change my approach.”

Another change has been the addition of former Major League lefty reliever Sean Doolittle to the coaching staff as a pitching strategist. A member of the Nationals’ team that won the World Series, University of Virginia product Doolittle was a popular player during his time in the nation’s capital. Doolittle is cerebral and focused on the mental side of pitching during his career. His last season in the majors was 2022.

Doolittle complements pitching coach Jim Hickey, according to Parker. Both remained on staff after Martinez was let go.

“I really like it. I don’t understand a lot of the numbers stuff, so he does a good job of translating it and making it easier for me to understand and grab it more,” Parker said of Doolittle. “I really like it. They both have been in the baseball world for a long time. Doo was playing just a couple of years ago. He has that under his belt. Jim has been doing this for a long time. They are both (talking to me) in between starts.”

With a few weeks left in the season, Parker can only hope those talks follow some better outings down the stretch.

Editor’s note: David Driver covered the Nationals from 2013-22 for various publications and websites. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball History,” available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at daytondavid.com. Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and Virginia.