Gore vs Card:
MacKenzie Gore went into the All-Star break and ended it having pitched two stifling innings for the bullpen in his first start of the so-called second half of the season.
“We need to do better.” Gore told reporters: He took to the mound at Nationals Park against the Cincinnati Reds after throwing 67 pitches to 12 batters over two innings (allowing two hits, four walks and three runs).
“I know what I’m doing wrong, and I think everyone else does too, but I’ve had enough and I have to find a solution. I can’t go on like this any more.”
Gore manager Davey Martinez told reporters last night before the series opener in St. Louis that he would like to see the team’s left-handed pitchers regain the power that has made them successful earlier this season.
“Just try to hit before the hitter does,” Martinez said. “Try to strike them out. They’ll get first, and then the next minute it’s 2-2, 3-2. I want him to just focus on his killer pitch, get first, strike them out early, pitch less and be more efficient.”
“Instead of 1-1, 1-2, it’s getting to 2-0, 3-0, and that’s bad,” Gore said on July 20. “I’m not getting hit, but I’m just walking a lot of batters.
“So I have to figure out how to get rid of it, and I will, but yeah, after the last few issues, this is a frustrating problem…”
Gore threw 48 pitches to seven batters in the first inning against the Reds, but threw just 15 pitches to Cardinals batters in the first inning last night, not including a one-out single and a two-out walk.
He took the mound in the second inning with a 2-0 lead on a one-out, two-run double by Luis Garcia Jr. and retired the Cardinals in order in nine pitches, but quickly gave up a 3-0 lead in the third inning, walking leadoff hitter Michael Ciani and then allowing a home run by Masin Winn on a 2-0 fastball above the zone to make the score 2-2.
Willson Contreras and Alec Burleson then hit back-to-back singles (a 3-1 fastball to Contreras for a 2-2 sweep for Burleson) and then Nolan Arenado hit a fastball high in the zone for a home run, but the pitching was 1-0 and St. Louis led 5-2.
Three consecutive hits (The first two pitches, a fastball on the first pitch, and a 1-0 curveballThe Cardinals cut their lead to two in the top of the inning on an RBI single by Garcia Jr., then extended their lead to 6-3 when he took the mound in the fourth inning.
Gore allowed a double in a scoreless fifth inning, but finished for the day after giving up nine hits, two walks and six earned runs and throwing 90 pitches.
“Look,” Gore told reporters after the game. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman“…Today wasn’t great, but it was better than last time.”
“I’m trying to get this all resolved and stop the bleeding here, and we will.”
“He was 2-0 against just about every hitter he faced,” Martinez said after his team tied the game and won in extra innings.
“[He was] “It’s 1-0, Arenado. He’s really, really good and really efficient when he has a lead. I talked to him a little bit about having to keep that lead.”
“But he got out in the fifth inning and just kept pitching. That was awesome.”
The Nationals trailed 6-3 after the fourth inning, but in the top of the fifth, Juan Yepes hit an RBI double and James Wood grounded out to score two runs, and in the top of the seventh, Yepes homered on a sacrifice fly to center field to score C.J. Abrams, making the score 6-6. The game continued into extra innings, and in the 10th inning, Jacob Young hit a bases-loaded triple for his 10th hit of the game for the visitors, who were hitless on Thursday, to take a 9-6 lead. Before the end of the inning, Young came home on Abrams’ RBI single to make the score 10-6, for a final score of 10-8.
