Washington Nationals news & notes: MacKenzie Gore finished strong after struggles…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ left-handed starter finishing strong after a rough stretch…

Going into MacKenzie Gore’s 32nd and final start of the 2024 campaign, Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez summed up all he’d seen from the 25-year-old lefty for the previous six months.

“Honestly, he started out really well,” the manager told reporters, “… he had a little lull.

“For me, I’m looking at how he finishes.”

That “lull” as Martinez described it, which saw Gore put up a 7.09 ERA, a 4.96 FIP, 29 walks (5.71 BB/9), 38 strikeouts (7.90 K/9), and a .314/.408/.487 line against over 10 starts and 45 ²⁄₃ innings pitched between late-June and mid-August, followed a strong start to the season for the southpaw (3.26 ERA, 2.85 FIP, 25 walks (2.81 BB/9), 98 Ks (11.03 K/9), .271/.334/.385 line against in 15 starts and 80 IP).

Gore finished up with a solid seven-start stretch in which the third-year major leaguer put up a 1.55 ERA, a 3.27 FIP, 11 walks (2.43 BB/9), 45 strikeouts (9.96 K/9), and a .181/.252/.306 line against in his final 40 ²⁄₃ IP for the season.

“Once again, it shows the maturity of one of our younger pitchers that he was able to put things together again and finish up strong,” Martinez said over the final weekend.

“He’s had a really good, good month. I’m proud of him,” he added. “Things could have went in a different direction for him, but he fought to get himself back in a competitive mode, be able to do some things, clean some things up mechanically. He’s done well.”

With six scoreless innings in start 32, Gore got his ERA under 4.00 for the year (3.90), which both the starter and manager said took a lot of hard work.

“He worked really hard to get back, get back in the zone, the strike zone,” Martinez said.

“He kept the ball down for the most part, which we talked about with him. His curveball was really effective, but man, his stuff is really electric. It really is.”

“I’m really proud of him though, the way he finished up. That’s a great building block for next year.”

Gore took a moment to note that ERA is not really the best way to judge a pitcher’s success while acknowledging it was nice to get it down below 4.00.

“Obviously you want an ERA as low as you can have, but it’s not something you chase,” Gore said. “It’s about how you’re getting there and stuff like that. ERA is cool. It’s not something that always tells the whole story, which is important to know, but I thought we did a really good job the last I don’t know what the number of starts was but I thought we did a good job of that.”

Overall, he said, all things considered, he thought his season was a success.

“I think career-high innings [166 1/3], career-high strikeouts [181],” Gore noted, “… I still think there’s some room for improvement. We went through a tough stretch, and we were able to get through it.”

Gore’s, “1.55 ERA from Aug. 23 to the end of the season,” ranked 5th in the majors as noted in the Nationals’ Season in Review.

“Per Baseball Savant,” the club highlighted, “[Gore] had the ninth-lowest percentage (27.7%) of squared-up contact among MLB pitchers (min. 500 competitive swings).”

Finishing up on a positive note, as his manager said, gave Gore confidence going into the offseason.

“It feels good to finish strong, and we were able to get out of it, like we’ve talked about and get some momentum going into next year.”

“He should feel really good about himself,” Martinez said after Gore’s final outing of 2024.

“We talk about how he’s a perfectionist, he wants everything to be right.

“He should go home knowing that ‘Hey, I had a really good September, and I finished up strong.’ If he goes back and looks at videos or mechanics, he should look at what he did this last month and then build from there. If we can keep him right there and get him started in the spring like that, he’s going to have some good numbers for us next year.”