Even with disastrous first inning, Parker found way to help Nats win

As much as the spotlight shone on the position players whose late offensive exploits helped the Nationals turn a six-run deficit into a thrilling, one-run win over the Mets on Sunday, Davey Martinez went out of his way early in his postgame press conference to praise his starting pitcher who departed with his team trailing 7-1.

“Look, say what you want with the first inning with Mitchell,” Martinez said. “If he doesn’t do what he does, I don’t even know how we’re going to put that together. Him going out there and giving us five innings like that was awesome.”

Mitchell Parker dug the Nationals into a massive hole with a disastrous first inning. He also quietly set the stage for all the drama that came later by not letting that disastrous first inning turn into anything worse.

During the course of a 43-pitch opening frame, Parker issued four walks, surrendered three singles and two sacrifice flies while letting the Mets score five runs. It was by far the worst inning by a Nats starting pitcher this season, and it left the team facing a monstrous, uphill climb.

Parker, who entered the day with a sparkling 1.39 ERA, clearly looked off as he tried to locate his pitches. Pretty much everything he threw landed far too high, or sometimes far too inside on right-handed batters.

“First inning was just pressing way too hard,” the left-hander said. “That’s just not the type of pitcher I am. I took a deep breath and tried to get back in it, just kept fighting.”

The inning was so ugly, Martinez had Jackson Rutledge warming up just in case Parker couldn’t get the third out before his pitch count got dangerously high. Instead, Rutledge took a seat in the bullpen and Parker settled in.

His goal at the end of the first?

“With how the first inning was going,” he said, “I was glad just to be out for the second inning.”

The top of the second didn’t get off to a much better start, with Juan Soto delivering a leadoff double and Pete Alonso following with a single. Soto would score two batters later to make it 6-0. And when Luis Torrens doubled to right with two outs in the fifth to bring home Starling Marte, New York had its seventh run off Parker.

And yet, Parker did get through the fifth inning, keeping his pitch count to a respectable 96. In doing so, he kept the Nationals troublesome bullpen from having to cover too many innings. Now, those relievers only needed to pitch four combined frames, which they did without surrendering another run.

“It starts with Mitch,” catcher Riley Adams said. “Obviously, having a high pitch count in that first inning and how everything went for him, to battle his butt off to get through five and keep the team in it and keep the score where it was and manageable, was massive for us. That certainly doesn’t go unnoticed.”

No, it wasn’t unnoticed in the Nationals clubhouse at the end of the day. While plenty of praise rightfully was being heaped upon Adams and Alex Call and Luis Garcia Jr. and everyone else who helped produce seven runs over the final three innings to pull off the improbable victory, everyone seemed to make a point to credit Parker for playing an important role in the comeback.

He may have seen his ERA skyrocket from 1.39 to 2.65. He may have given up the second-most runs in his big league career. But he still found a way to give his teammates a chance, simply by brushing off one disastrous inning and salvaging four quality ones after it.

“You always can learn a lot from an outing like that,” Parker said. “You’re not going to have the best stuff. You’re not always going to be 100 percent there. But you’ve got to battle. That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to fight and give the team the best chance you can.”