Washington Nationals news & notes: James Wood and MacKenzie Gore lead Nats to win over Marlins…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ win over the Marlins in the nation’s capital…

GOREGEOUS:

Going into MacKenzie Gore’s 30th start of the 2024 campaign, Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters he wanted to see the southpaw continue to build on what he has been able to do when successful on the mound this season.

“Just attacking the strike zone, competing, pitch efficiency,” Martinez stressed. “I’d like for him to get through the day with about 90 pitches, maybe six innings would be great. But we’ll see how he goes out there today.

“As we all talk about, he’s got electric stuff, it’s about pounding the strike zone.”

Photo by Emmanuel Durojaiye/Getty Images

Leadoff and one-out walks and a 31-pitch first, (in which he did strike out two batters), made it look like Gore might not go as deep as Martinez hoped, but he was efficient from there in what ended up being a six-inning, 93-pitch outing in which he gave up two hits, and only an unearned run, walking the two in the opening frame and no more the rest of the game, with five strikeouts from the 22 batters he faced.

Gore generated 10 swings and misses, five with his curve, three with his fastball, and two on his changeup, and finished the day with 17 called strikes, eight each on his four-seamer and curveball, and one on his slider.

“He settled down after the first inning,” Martinez said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, after a 4-1 win for Washington in the series finale with Miami’s Marlins in the nation’s capital.

“I think everything was quick on him in the first inning. He was able to come back and settle down a little bit. He slowed things down a little bit and was really adjusted to just pumping strikes once again. Throwing his breaking ball, keeping balls down. They didn’t really hit the ball that hard on him today, which was awesome.”

“Just command wasn’t there from the get-go. And then we got going,” Gore explained when asked about working through the first and then pitching well afterwards.

“I just thought we just did what we needed to do after that [first inning]. Just kind of came out slow. But we figured it out and that’s what it’s all about.”

Gore earned his 9th win (W, 9-12, 4.17 ERA) in his 30th start of the season, which the left-hander said was a big deal.

“That’s big. That’s something important,” Gore added. “Just so when you get back in these situations at this time of the year you’ve been there, and so yeah, that a big deal, but we’re not done yet.”

Gore has, “… pitched to a 1.95 ERA (6 ER/27.2 IP) with 27 strikeouts and a .212 opponent’s batting average (22-for-104) over his last five starts,” the Nationals noted after the game.

POINTS!!:

Luis García, Jr. singled to drive in a game-tying run in the fourth, and scored on a single by Keibert Ruiz late in the inning, then James Wood hit two solo home runs in the fifth (435 ft. off Marlins’ starter Adam Oller) and eighth (off of reliever Declan Cronin, 426 ft), and that’s all the scoring the Nationals needed in the third win in four games with the Marlins in their final series against one another this season.

The first of the two home runs for Wood was his first in almost a month (August 18th in PHI), and with the second shot, the 21-year-old rookie had his first multi-home run game as a big leaguer.

“You try not to [think about it],” Wood said of the long stretch without a longball, “… but sometimes it’s like, ‘Damn, I feel like I haven’t hit one in a while.’”

To see him get a hold of two let his manager know things were going well at the plate.

“Hopefully, that doesn’t stop today, right? I love the swings,” Davey Martinez said. “He was behind the balls really well. He stayed in the middle of the field, which was awesome. So let’s see if we can keep him there until the end of the year and he hits a few more for us.”

“I think it’s just a timing thing, and right now if he gets the ball in the strike zone he needs to pull the trigger a lot more.

Today he did that. And he hit them high and far. That’s a good sign for him. And like I said, hopefully, he continues to do that here for the next 10 days or so and he finishes up strong.”