As Mackenzie Gore makes his 32nd and final start of the 2024 season, Nats skipper Davey Martinez summed up what he has seen from the 25-year-old left-hander over the past six months.
“Honestly, he got off to a very good start,” the coach told reporters.
“For me, I’m looking to see how he ends up.”
During that “lull,” as Martinez described it, Gore posted a 7.09 ERA, 4.96 FIP, 29 walks (5.71/9 BB), 38 strikeouts (7.90 K/9), and a batting average of .314/.408/.487. did. For starts of 10 or more and lines of 45 or more 2⁄3 The southpaw got off to a strong start this season by increasing the number of innings pitched from late June to mid-August (3.26 ERA, 2.85 FIP, 25 walks (2.81 BB/9), 98 Ks (11.03 K/9), .271/). 334/.385 line over 15 starts and 80 IP).
Gore finished with a solid seven starts, with the third-year major leaguer posting a 1.55 ERA, 3.27 FIP, 11 walks (2.43/9 BB), 45 strikeouts (9.96 K/9) and a .181 batting average. for a /.252/.306 line in the last 40. 2⁄3 IP of the season.
“Again, for him to be able to put things back together and finish strong shows the maturity of one of our young pitchers,” Martinez said last weekend.
“He’s had a really good, good month. I’m proud of him,” he added. “Things could have gone in a different direction for him, but he fought to get himself back into competitive mode and be able to do some things and clean up some things mechanically. He did well.”
Gore pitched six scoreless innings in 32 starts and posted a sub-4.00 ERA (3.90) on the year, but both his starting pitcher and manager said it took a lot of effort.
“He worked hard to get back in the zone, the strike zone,” Martinez said.
“He held the ball down for the most part, but we talked about that with him. His breaking ball was really effective, but, well, his ball was really exciting. It really is. Yo.”
“But I’m really proud of his finish. It’s going to be a great foundation for next year.”
Gore briefly mentioned that ERA is not the best way to judge a pitcher’s success, but acknowledged that getting an ERA below 4.00 is great.
“Obviously you want your ERA to be as low as possible, but that’s not something to chase,” Gore said. “It’s all about how we get there and stuff like that. Ella is cool. It’s important to know that because it doesn’t always tell everything, but in the end we did a really good job.” I thought we did a good job of that, I don’t know how many starts we had.”
Overall, he said he thought his season was a success, all things considered.
“I think it was the best inning of my career.” [166 1/3]career-high number of strikeouts [181]” said Gore. “…I think there’s still room for improvement. We went through some tough moments, but we were able to get through them.”
Gore’s “1.55 ERA from August 23rd to the end of the season” ranks fifth in the majors, as noted in the Nationals’ season review.
“According to Baseball Savant,” the club emphasized.[Gore] He had the 9th lowest square-up contact rate (27.7%) among MLB pitchers (500 or more competitive swings). ”
As the manager said, finishing well gave Gore confidence heading into the offseason.
“It feels good to finish on a strong note. Like we’ve been talking about, we’re able to come out of this situation and have some momentum going into next year.”
“He should be very happy with himself,” Martinez said after Gore’s final exit in 2024.
“We talk about him being a perfectionist and wanting everything to be right.
“He should go home thinking, ‘Oh, I had a really good September, and I was able to finish strong.'” If you go back and look at the videos and the mechanics, what did you do last month? You should check and build from there. If we can keep him there and start him in the spring like he did, he’ll put us up with good numbers next year. ”
