Given last chance to make case for spot, Ogasawara labors again

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If this was one final opportunity for Shinnosuke Ogasawara to make his case for a spot in the Nationals’ rotation, he was going to have to do something eye-opening tonight against a tough Mets lineup.

Instead, the Japanese left-hander provided more of the same. And in the process probably sealed his fate.

Unable to put hitters away, Ogasawara racked up a gargantuan pitch count and didn’t even make it through the fourth inning in what wound up a 10-3 loss to New York.

The Nationals wanted to get Ogasawara up to at least 90 pitches, but the hope was he would reach the sixth inning in the process. Instead, he was already at 80 after only three laborious frames. He came back to face five more batters in the fourth and then departed with a hefty 98 pitches through in 3 2/3 innings, having surrendered eight runs on eight hits and three walks.

“He’s always been a strike-thrower,” manager Davey Martinez said. “For me, that’s a (sign) that he’s still trying to search for things. He’s got to pound the zone. The times he did get ahead, he was good. And I know he can throw strikes, because he’s done it.”

Ogasawara hasn’t thrown enough strikes in his first major league spring training, issuing eight total walks in only 12 innings. And when he has put it over the plate, he has paid the price for it, surrendering 24 hits.

Put that all together, and he’s staring at an 11.25 ERA and 2.667 WHIP in five Grapefruit League appearances.

“Obviously, when you see the numbers, it’s not good,” he said, via interpreter Kiyoshi Tada. “But as long as I’m fighting, keep fighting to try to do the best as I can, that’s what I need to do, and probably what I need to do in the future.”

The Nationals haven’t formally declared yet where Ogasawara will be pitching next. There are no more exhibition games for him (or the others competing for the fifth spot in the rotation) to take the mound before Opening Day.

Read between the lines, though, and it seems clear the club plans to option the 27-year-old to Triple-A Rochester and give him more time to develop both a routine and a better plan of attack against a higher caliber of hitter than he faced in Japan.

“Hey, it’s a process,” Martinez explained to the lefty. “You’ve got to stay positive throughout the whole thing. Understand that you’re here because you’ve done really well in Japan. You’ve got an opportunity to do something here special. You might go through some struggles at first, but you’ve got to keep working at it.”

Ogasawara, for his part, seems to understand the situation. He also acknowledges he needs to learn more about how to sequence his pitches against hitters at this level, trusting that his repertoire is good enough if properly utilized.

“Obviously, I’m working on my strategy and how I’m approaching the hitters,” he said. “At the same time, I’m going to keep whatever I have right now. I have been using those pitches for my entire career. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

With Ogasawara getting the start tonight against the Mets, Mitchell Parker was relegated to a minor league field for a start against New York’s Triple-A roster (including former National first baseman Joey Meneses). He went six innings, totaling 90 pitches, getting stronger as the game went on, according to Martinez.

With a 3.65 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in four Grapefruit League appearances (two of them starts), Parker appears to be in the driver’s seat for the final spot in the Nats rotation.

“I’m happy with where we’re at, happy with how everything’s feeling, happy with how everything’s played out,” he said. “I’m just waiting to figure out what happens.”

Does Parker believe he’s earned the job?

“I feel like I’ve put myself in a good position,” he said. “But … control what you can control.”