Parents watch 'tough as nails' Tetreault earn first 'W'

WASHINGTON -- For Father’s Day this year, Jackson Tetreault gave his dad a bird’s eye view of his first Major League win.

After making his debut on Tuesday, Tetreault dazzled over seven innings for a 9-3 victory against the Phillies while his parents, Curt and Janet, proudly looked on.

It had been a long journey for Tetreault, who began his athletic career undersized and -- after being drafted in the seventh round by the Nats in 2017 -- spent five years working toward this moment.

“Even when he was 6-foot-5 and 170 [pounds], he had a lot of negative comments made,” Curt said of his son. “But this is great because he’s proven all those people wrong. He’s beaten the odds. I have two great sons, and great kids deserve great opportunities. And this is a great opportunity for Jackson right now.”

Tennis always was prevalent in the Tetreault household. Curt competed on the pro level, and Jackson played the sport through his senior year of high school. When it came to baseball, he played Little League, participated in travel ball and made the squad as a five-foot, 90-pound freshman at Lennard High School in Ruskin, Fla. -- but he was far from having Major League aspirations.

“I was a position player,” Tetreault said. “In trying to hit batting practice, I couldn’t even hit it out of the infield. I was so tiny. I had no business being there. I was on the team, but I didn’t play. I was like, ‘Well, that stunk.’”

Tetreault revisited baseball his senior year. This time around, he had grown to over six feet tall. He was playing third base when he noticed the pitching staff was struggling, so he asked his coach if he could give it a try. He remained in the rotation the rest of the year.

“When the season was over, I was like, ‘Oh, I liked that,’” Tetreault said.

Tetreault’s interest was piqued, and soon he'd made his community college team as a walk-on. He redshirted his first year and used the time to practice and throw bullpens before transferring to Cameron University, where he was offered a scholarship sight-unseen after submitting a video of his work. Pitching out the bullpen, he gradually built his velocity from the mid-80s to being able to hit the low 90s.

“Everyone was super pumped for me, and I was still kind of oblivious,” Tetreault said. “I was just playing.”

Back home, Curt recognized his son’s potential. He arranged for Jackson to throw a bullpen session for the State College of Florida coach, which led to another scholarship offer. While it was “bittersweet” to leave Cameron, the transfer presented added visibility. The Nationals were among the teams at a scout day.

“He was really skinny -- really skinny,” said Nationals assistant general manager and vice president of scouting operations Kris Kline. “He might have touched 94 [mph], but he kind of pitched at 88 to 91, right in that range. But what was so intriguing was his ability to locate his fastball, the body was very projectable and the most intriguing part was the velocity to his curveball. He could really spin his curveball, and he threw it up to 82 miles an hour. That’s kind of the telltale sign that this kid is going to throw harder. So he was actually an easy kid to scout.”

After being drafted in 2017, the right-hander threw 439 1/3 innings for the Nationals’ Minor League affiliates before getting the call last week.

“'Incredible' is the number one word,” said Janet. “It’s so emotional. We are happy for him, just so happy, because so much work goes into this. This doesn’t happen overnight.”

Tetreault got his feet wet by tossing four frames in a loss to the hot-hitting Braves. He bounced back by fanning two, allowing three (unearned) runs off six hits and fighting through taking a comebacker off his lower left leg.

“He threw a gem today,” said manager Dave Martinez. “He controlled the strike zone, he seemed a little bit more under control today than he did in his first outing, which is expected. He used all his pitches and he stayed ahead of the hitters, which was really nice. … He got hit, he didn’t want to come out of the game, he wanted to finish the inning. I talked to his dad yesterday, and his dad said he’s tough as nails. So he proved it today.”

Tetreault gave the Nationals a win to snap an eight-game losing skid, and Curt a Father's Day at the ballpark to remember.

“It meant a lot to have him here again on Father’s Day,” said Tetreault. “It was really cool. The crowd was awesome -- I felt really good energy -- and I’m just really happy I was able to contribute to getting the win tonight.”