Washington Nationals news & notes: MacKenzie Gore still searching, Nats drop 5-1 decision to Phillies…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ loss to the Phillies in CBP…

GORE-Y?:

MacKenzie Gore put together a solid run of 14 starts to begin the season in which he posted a 3.24 ERA, a 2.95 FIP, and .262/.327/.383 line against in 75 IP.

Over the next nine outings, however, the 25-year-old southpaw struggled, putting up a 7.24 ERA, 4.79 FIP, and an ugly-looking .314/.398/.491 line against in 41 innings.

Start No. 10 in his tough stretch, was last week in the nation’s capital, where Gore allowed five hits, a career-high six walks, and five runs (all unearned).

“This has been tough,” he acknowledged in his post game comments, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“Trying to figure out how to get back to pitching well and giving us a good chance to win every time out. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m going to keep working. I’ve got the right people around me, and I think we’re doing the right things before the starts. I’m just not executing when I get out there.”

“We’ve just got to keep working with him,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters after the outing, as quoted by MLB.com’s Melanie Martinez-Lopez.

“He’s got to understand that strike one for him is going to be his best pitch. He was 4-for-17 getting ahead of hitters today and he just falls behind, … and the fouls balls, he’s got to work ahead and stay ahead.”

Martinez told reporters a few days later he and his coaches had a plan for Gore between his starts.

“We’re going to do some different things in his bullpen tomorrow, we’re going to work on some different things and see what happens there,” he explained, “and then he’ll go out and pitch on Saturday and see how it goes, but yeah, I talked to [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey, I talked to MacKenzie about doing some things with him out there in the bullpen, so we’ll see how it goes.”

GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN’s Sports Junkies this past week he saw, “… a pitcher struggling for command and mechanics.”

Gore, he said, is a, “… guy with great stuff that hasn’t harnessed it, yet.

“I like to think that he’s such an intelligent person and intelligent pitcher, Hickey and [Pitching Strategist Sean] Doolittle and he will get their heads together and figure out what the issue is and correct it.”

“I like the totality of his game,” he added.

“He’s got great stuff, he’s got great athleticism, he’s got a great body, and I think it’s just a matter of time where he flips the switch and turns it back on.

“Don’t forget the first [11] starts of the season he was a No. 1 starter on anybody’s rotation and the last 13 haven’t been nearly as good.”

“I think he’s just got to get back into the model where his mechanics allow his arm to get into position to have all four of his pitches come out of the same window and at the same release point.

“And when that happens he’ll get back to that guy that was pitching the first 12 starts for us and not the guy who has pitched the last 13 starts for us.”

Going up against Philadelphia’s Phillies yesterday in Citizens Bank Park, Gore started off well in the first three innings, but he gave up a two-out walk and an RBI double in the fourth that tied things up at 1-1 after the Nationals took an early lead, and after a scoreless fifth, things went awry in the sixth.

Trea Turner doubled to start the inning, and scored one out later on an RBI single by Alec Bohm, 2-1 Phillies. Nick Castellano, whose double drove in the home team’s first run, hit a single to left, before J.T. Realmuto’s RBI single scored Bohm, 3-1.

A two-out RBI hit put the Phils up by three, and Gore was done for the night, having thrown 92 pitches in 5 ²⁄₃ IP, over which he gave up nine hits, two walks, and five earned runs in a 5-1 loss.

Just another day where I wasn’t good enough to win,” Gore said after the outing.

“I thought I did some things better, but we ended up giving up five runs. Did some things better, but still pretty frustrating.”

Asked what he thought he did better, Gore said, “I thought we attacked guys. Got in better counts. And when we didn’t, we got back in them. Got some guys when we needed to on the ground and we kept the ball in the yard. That’s the important thing here in this park.”

What boxes does he need to check to know he’s back where he was at the start of the year?

“Not giving up five runs is the main one right now. I thought honestly the rest of them were probably checked today, but it’s about winning and losing here, and if you give up five runs there’s a good chance you’re going to lose.”

His manager was a little more positive in his review of Gore’s work in CBP.

“MacKenzie threw the ball really well for five innings. I gave him every opportunity to try to get out of the sixth inning,” Martinez said, “he just couldn’t do it. But he threw the ball way better. Way better.

“Efficiency was good. He was attacking the strike zone. Everything was down. When he got hit, he got the ball up. But he threw the ball better.”

“We’ve talked about keeping the ball down,” he added, “… we talked about getting on top of the baseball. Did really well. His breaking ball was a little better. He threw some changeups which is good to see, we talked about that as well, but for the most part he threw the ball really well for five innings.”