Washington Nationals news & notes: MacKenzie Gore takes step back; Nats drop 12-0 decision to Braves…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ series opening loss to the Braves in the nation’s capital…

Mackenzie Gore’s second-half got off to a rough start, with the 25-year-old lefty (1-3) with a 7.00 ERA, a 5.62 FIP, 17 walks (5.67 BB/9), 20 strikeouts (6.67 K/9), and a .350/.434/.547 line against in six starts and 27 innings pitched coming out of the All-Star break.

In three outings before last night’s start in the series opener with Atlanta in D.C., however, Gore started to turn things around, posting a 2.00 ERA, a 3.02 FIP, two walks (1.00 BB/9), 19 strikeouts (9.50 K/9), and a .209/.243/.343 line against in 18 IP (which is more in line with the numbers he put up in the first-half: 3.24 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 23 walks (2.76 BB/9), 91 Ks (10.92 K/9), and a .262/.327/.383 line against in 75 IP).

“He’s been great, it’s awesome,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez said after the southpaw held Marlins’ hitters to one run, one hit, and one walk in six strong last week in Miami.

“We want him to finish up strong going into the winter break — and build some confidence with him, but he’s — like I said — he’s utilizing all his pitches really well right now, and he’s doing really well.

“He’s working really hard, and [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey has worked with him about pounding that strike zone, about working ahead, he’s done a great job.”

His solid start against the Fish, Gore said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, was a matter of, “… just kind of building off of the approach we’ve had the last few outings.

“I felt good going in and we did a nice job of executing it.”

Against the Braves last night? Not so much. Gore retired the side in order in the top of the first, stranded a leadoff walk in the second, then fell apart with two outs in the third.

Luke Williams reached on an error by Nats’ third baseman José Tena with one out, then stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a ground-rule double by Jorge Soler, 1-0. A wild pitch and walk followed, then another double, 2-0, and another, 4-0, and another hit batter extended the inning further, before a groundout mercifully ended the frame.

Michael Harris II hit a two-out home run off Gore in the fourth, 5-0 Braves, and then a walk, catcher interference call, and back-to-back, RBI singles made it 7-0 before Gore was lifted, having thrown 79 pitches to 23 batters, giving up six hits, three walks, and seven runs, two earned, in what ended up a 12-0 loss.

“He didn’t pitch well,” Martinez said of Gore’s outing in his post game comments. “We didn’t hit well. It was kind of a lopsided game.”

The rough third, the skipper said, came down to not putting hitters away.

“He got the out, got the error,” Martinez explained, “then five guys reached on base after that. It seemed like today he just couldn’t put anybody away. He had a lot of two-strike counts, and he let up seven runs with two outs. It was a tough day for him, we’ve got to get him back straightened out, get the ball down again for him, and go from there.”

“I just didn’t execute like I have been,” Gore said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“And when you see teams for a fourth time, execution is extremely important. I didn’t do it.”

Gore put up a 1.65 ERA, one walk, 21 Ks, and a .288/.309/.424 line against in his first three starts and 16 ¹⁄₃ IP against the Braves this season. His manager seemed to think it was just about execution, more than familiarity.

“I just think — like I said, he got a lot of guys out with two strikes, he just couldn’t finish,” the manager said. “And just had one of those days.

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

“Like I said, we’ll talk to him tomorrow, we’ll talk to him about how the game went and what he was trying to do with two strikes.”

Gore still has a few starts to build on what he was doing before last night, and the Nationals want to try to help him finish up strong.

“We want him to finish strong. He used his changeup really well coming up to today,” Martinez said.

“We want him to really perfect that, and understand what that does to the rest of his pitches. His curveball is getting better, it’s getting a lot sharper. He threw a few good ones today. Fastball location, really getting him to understand that when he throws his fastball down it’s got a lot more movement on it and he gets out that way. He gets a lot of contact ground balls, and so we want him to finish off the season strong. He’s had some really good outings up till today, so not going to beat him up too much today, I’m really not, he’s done a lot better.”