Washington Nationals news & notes: MacKenzie Gore Ks 10; 25 whiffs + shoving; Nats beat Marlins, 8-1…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ 8-1 win over the Marlins and MacKenzie Gore shoving … or Nick Senzel shoving, or something…

SHOVES, WHIFFS, AND THE INNER CIRCLE:

MacKenzie Gore struck out 10 of the 28 Miami Marlins’ hitters he faced on Friday night in the nation’s capital, and held the Fish to a run on five hits in seven strong innings, over which he threw 103 pitches, 71 for strikes. Gore also set a new career high in swings and misses, with 25 whiffs overall, 12 on his fastball, five on his changeup, and four each on his curveball and slider. It’s tied for the most swings and misses in the majors this season with Pirates’ starter Jared Jones. So yeah, pretty good outing.

Gore and his teammates took the series opener in Nationals Park by a final score of 8-1, with a big, seven-run third blowing the game open, but what got more attention was a second-inning dugout shoving match between Gore and Nats’ third baseman Nick Senzel, who had some words and made some contact in the dugout before they were split up.

It appeared to be over Gore’s take on a play Senzel made on a two-out chopper to third in the top of the second, on which a run scored when Senzel’s throw to first was a step late.

If Gore objected to the effort from Senzel, he wasn’t saying so in his post game comments.

“We handled it in here,” Gore said when asked about the confrontation. “I think the biggest thing was — that’s something that I can’t do. But I’m going to leave it at that, that’s on me.

“But it’s in here, we figured it out. That was more something that can’t happen, but we played a great game today and we got a chance to win a series tomorrow.”

Asked for details, Gore said simply, “I’m not going to share anything other than that I was in the wrong.”

While he didn’t confirm his effort on the play was the source of the friction, Senzel told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, that he has to make a better play in that circumstance.

“I probably gotta do a better job of getting rid of it with a better throw,” Senzel said. “Maybe a little lackadaisical. So that one’s on me.”

“All I’ll tell you is — I don’t know if you’ve got any brothers, right?” manager Davey Martinez asked rhetorically when it came up in his own post game press conference. “I fought my brothers every day, it’s part of it. When you’re around each other a little bit — I love it. It’s the competitive nature of them, and what they did after that, was awesome. The rest of it will stay in our circle.”

What did they do after the altercation?

“They hugged each other,” Martinez explained, “… like I said, it’s not the first time I’ve seen that happen. I can tell you this, I’ve been on some really good teams where guys get after it, and everything was okay. Like I’ve said before, this is a competitive game, and sometimes within one another, it gets that way, but they worked it out, and they hugged each other, and it’s all good.”

As for his performance on the mound, which also included 14 called strikes (6 each on his fastball and curve, and one each on his changeup and slider), Martinez said simply, “Today was about MacKenzie pitching his butt off.”

The seventh-year skipper talked about Gore’s emotions overall, and how he’s harnessed them in his second year with the Nationals and third year in the majors.

“This is something that we talked about at the end of last year, that he needs to be able to control his heartbeat and control his emotions when he’s out there,” Martinez said.

“Especially when things look like it’s going to unravel, stay focused on the next pitch, and he’s done that. He’s done that really well. And he’s pitching really good. But I think if we can harness that emotion, that aggression, you’re looking at an All-Star. He definitely can be an All-Star. But he’s done a great job. He knows when he goes through it, and he talks about it, which is great, but I love the fact that he wants to go out and compete and win every day.”

Gore said the swings and misses were the result of a good game plan they put together for the start against the Marlins.

“I just think the game plan was good, stuff was good,” Gore said. “Understanding who we were facing — they’re an aggressive team, and if you execute you can get some swing and miss against them. That was kind of the game plan going in, is that they swing a lot, so…”

JOEY GALLO UPDATE:

Joey Gallo landed on the IL this week, with a hamstring issue, and, according to manager, Davey Martinez, it’s a significant one, which is going to keep the veteran out of the lineup for a while.

“He has a strain, a significant strain, so he’s going to be out for a while,” Martinez said in his post game presser last night.

“So, we’ll get him back healthy, and hopefully sooner than later.”

SAC FLYAPLOOZA IN DETROIT:

Davey Martinez was asked a simple but very interesting question after the club connected for six sac flies in taking 2 of 3 games from the Tigers this week on the road in Comerica Park.

Were the Nationals making contact when needed to get runs in?

Or just missing big hits which could have driven in multiple runs in those plate appearances?

Martinez’s take?

“The beautiful thing is that we’re starting to understand how to drive in runs from third base with less than two outs,” he said. “I know [Ildemaro] Vargas had a couple of them, but we’re putting the ball in play, but we’ve struggled before, and a lot of our emphasis now was just trying to move the baseball with guys in scoring position, and you know what, we did it, and then we’ll keep doing it like that and the next thing you know another guy hits a double, balls carry a little bit, we’ll start driving in some more runs, but offensively other than today the first two games we did well, we scored some runs, so we got to continue to do that.”