As he watched from the dugout Thursday afternoon as MacKenzie Gore carved up the Phillies with one of the most dominant pitching performances in Opening Day history, Mitchell Parker could’ve felt intimidated. Instead, he felt emboldened.
“I said after MacKenzie’s, seeing the guys do that, it’s contagious,” Parker said. “Everybody wants to keep it rolling. It’s contagious on the whole pitching staff. It’s awesome.”
Whether it was contagious or merely quality pitching by all three of their starters, the Nationals’ rotation was electric this weekend. Gore set the bar awfully high with six innings of scoreless, one-hit, zero-walk, 13-strikeout ball. Jake Irvin followed him up with five gutsy innings of two-run ball. And then Parker finished it off with 6 1/3 scoreless innings to win Sunday’s series finale.
Sure, the Nats only won once in three tries against Philadelphia, but the two losses sure weren’t the fault of their starters. They combined to surrender a grand total of two runs over 17 1/3 innings, striking out 20 while walking only four.
That 1.04 ERA was second-best in the majors through the weekend, trailing only – get this – the White Sox, who did not allow an earned run in three games against the Angels.
“You couldn’t ask for any more out of those guys. They could ask a little more out of us in the lineup,” designated hitter Josh Bell said. “I’m excited for them. I think we have the starters to at least put ourselves in position to gain leads early on in games. If we can do that, we’ll be in a good position.”
The Nationals were in position to win all three games against the Phillies. They held a lead at some point in each contest. The two losses came only after nightmare performances from the bullpen.
While club officials were optimistic about their rotation coming out of spring training, they might not have expected it to be this good in the very early going.
Then again, the team’s positive development during the 2024 season was the emergence of several young starters who outperformed expectations, headlined by Parker and fellow rookie left-hander DJ Herz.
“We saw that last year with these guys,” manager Davey Martinez said. “They’re relentless. They compete. They try to get outs. We try to be very efficient. We talk to them all the time about trying to get into the seventh inning, 21 outs. They’ve been really good.”
Though none of their starters recorded 21 outs in the opening series, the Nationals did get three straight outings of at least 15 outs while surrendering two or fewer runs. It’s the first time they got that from their first three starters in a season since 2018, when the names involved were Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez.
The 17 1/3 combined innings by starters were fourth-most among all major league teams that played three games (not four) over the weekend.
It’s the primary reason the clubhouse was overwhelmingly optimistic late Sunday afternoon, even after losing the series. The feeling among players: If they keep getting pitching like this, they’re going to win more games than they lose. And if they can keep hitting for power – the Nats actually outhomered the Phillies, 6-5 – they’re going to help their chances as well.
“We were right there with them,” Bell said. “We had opportunities to win, or at least put ourselves in the lead early against their starters. I like our chances. We outslugged them. We hit more homers. We just have to take advantage early in the game. And if we can get some lesser arms coming out of their bullpen, we can really continue to do damage.”
There are matters that need to be cleaned up, and quick, of course. The bullpen, which owns an ugly 13.50 ERA even with a strong showing Sunday, is chief among them. They also need to start driving in runs when they get the chance (they were just 4-for-29 with runners in scoring position) and not rely exclusively on homers.
But if they were allowed to pick only one aspect of the team to perform at the highest level over the weekend, most probably would have picked the rotation.
“It’s promising, because we were in position to win all three games against a perennial contender,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said. “We just need to execute, take that as a reminder going forward and have a good series in Toronto.”
