WASHINGTON, DC-To sum up Friday night’s game, Mitchell Parker had a rough start while Erick Fedde had a brilliant one.
By the third inning of the series opener against the Cardinals (20-19), Parker had thrown 70 pitches in three innings. He walked the first two batters faced, setting up a big scoring opportunity for St. Louis. The walks led to two runs on a double by William Contreras.
The Cards added two more by the fourth, one run scoring on a wild pitch. Seeing seven hits on the scoreboard, the crowd became restless. By that point, the only Nats hitter who had figured out Erick Fedde, a former Washington first-round draft pick, was CJ Abrams. (He had three hits total.)
If there was a positive to Parker’s start, it was his five strikeouts. But Jackson Rutledge appeared in the bullpen earlier than usual, and pitching coach Jim Hickey came out of the dugout just to give Parker a breather in the fourth.
Before this series, the Nationals (17-22) were trying to recover from a series lost at home against Cleveland. Washington has been in games this season, thanks to offense. The bullpen is the team’s weakness. It has been for too many seasons. So with Fedde pitching like an ace, Davey Martinez opted to go to Rutledge in the fifth.
Sometimes hitters have trouble adjusting to a new arm. But the Cards had no problem. Against Rutledge, they had three straight hits. Nolan Arenado scored on a double by Ivan Herrera. And another run crossed the plate on a sac fly by Jordan Walker. By the midway point of the game, the Nats were down 6-0.
St. Louis was effective all night because they did not chase pitches. They are one of the top teams in MLB when it comes to not swinging outside of the strike zone. Nats pitchers had trouble finding it, Their trouble was compounded on the offensive side because they were swinging at nearly everything thrown their way. Fedde threw pitches not even close to the zone and kept getting strikes.
If this were MLB The Show, you’d simply press the reset button and start over. Unfortunately, that option was not available to the home team. Fedde entered the seventh on 67 pitches and kept pitching. The Nats kept desperately swinging.
The bullpen didn’t come to their rescue. In the eighth, those who came on in relief only made things worse with miscues, which included hit batters and wild pitches. The Nats lead MLB in both categories. Unbelievably, the Cards scored three runs on only one hit, so the six on the scoreboard flipped to nine in no time.
Fedde looked like he would pitch a complete game when he stepped onto the mound in the bottom of the inning. And that’s exactly what he did with great defense playing behind him. His team ahead by 10, he finished a career night with eight strikeouts and no walks on 109 pitches.
View the boxscore HERE.
SEE ALSO: Alexandria Author Explores Bravery in ‘The Courage Gap’
