Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop 2 of 3 to D-backs in D.C. with 5-2 loss; MacKenzie Gore vs AZ…

Notes and quotes from the Nats and D-backs’ series finale in D.C.

GORE VS AZ:

Pitching on extra rest after dealing with a fingernail issue on his pitching hand, MacKenzie Gore tossed seven strong against Miami last week in the nation’s capital, giving up five hits, a walk, and one earned run while striking out 10 of 28 batters he faced in a 103-pitch effort.

Gore set a new career-high in the outing, with 25 whiffs overall, 12 on his fastball, five on his changeup, and four each on his curveball and slider. He chalked it up to a good game plan against the Marlins’ hitters.

“I thought the stuff was good going in,” the 25-year-old southpaw told reporters, “… and we were able to execute it at a high enough level and we made pitches when we needed to.”

“They’re an aggressive team, and if you execute you can get some swing and miss against them,” he explained. “That was kind of the game plan going in, is that they swing a lot, so…”

On Thursday afternoon in Nationals Park, the southpaw got off to a good start, with three Ks around a single in the first, but after working around a single and a walk in the second, Gore was up to 40 pitches total, and after he stranded back-to-back, two-out singles in the third, the Arizona Diamondbacks got to the Nats’ starter, with four hits including an RBI single and two-run double, 3-0.

Gore returned to the mound in the fifth, and gave up a two-out single, walk, and RBI hit that made it 4-0 D-backs, and he was up to 103 pitches, with a career-high 10 hits allowed and a total of 26 pitches fouled off as Arizona’s hitters ran his pitch count up and got him out early though 9 of 10 hits off him were singles.

“It’s just part of the game, I guess,” Gore said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco after a 5-2 loss in the series finale. “Yeah, a lot of [soft hits] today. It’s a good thing when they’re not hitting the ball hard. But you’ve got to understand why they’re getting hits, too. So it was one of those days. We got another one tomorrow.”

“He was two different guys for me today,” his manager said.

“The top of the lineup, he was nails. He was pounding the zone and striking out guys. And the bottom of the lineup, which they didn’t hit the ball hard, but it was a little different for him. I feel like he wasn’t really in sync the whole day. He battled some innings there.”

Martinez’s club dropped 2 of 3 to the D-backs, after sweeping the Marlins, so they wrapped up the six-game homestand 4-2, and now they head out on the road to face Colorado, San Diego, and Tampa Bay.

The seventh-year skipper wasn’t too concerned about the series loss to Arizona.

“We’re playing well,” he said. “I’m not going to let one game deter what we’re what we’re trying to do. It was tough today, but we’ll come back tomorrow. We fly out to Colorado.

“Let’s try to go 1-0 tomorrow.”

PFP:

Mitchell Parker acknowledged after he’d committed an error which started things rolling against him in his June 11th start, that he had let the misplay affect him for a few batters afterwards.

“I probably let it linger with me a little too long,” the 24-year-old rookie said, “… and then at some point kind of reeled everything back in, but definitely let it in the head for a little too long.”

Asked what he’d learned from the error, Parker said, “Catch the ball and make the throw,” with a laugh.

“Don’t let the game speed up on me. I mean, it’s a fast game, but don’t make it any faster than it has to be.”

His manager said there was a simple way to address the error by his starter.

“PFPs,” Davey Martinez told reporters. Pitchers’ Fielding Practice. “We’re going to do PFPs. I mean, really. I sat there, and I told you, I’m not going to lie to you, I sat there scratching my head, like, ‘You can’t get a ball easier than that.’ But that’s why this is a funny game. Sometimes things happen.”

When Parker made an error in his follow-up start as well, there was no avoiding it.

Before Wednesday afternoon’s game with the D-Backs, Parker was out on the field in Nationals Park doing PFPs.

“He did good,” Martinez told reporters in his pregame press conference. “He caught a lot.

“Hopefully he knows now the importance of fielding his position. But he did fine. He did fine. Just wanted to get him out there. Don’t want to put that thought in his head that he’s got an issue. That’s the biggest thing. He did it a bunch of times and did it well. The biggest thing is getting him down. As we told him before, sometimes he got ahead of himself. You’ve got to field the ball first before you can throw it, so make sure you get down, you gather yourself, and just make a good throw over to first base. But he was good. I was in there with him just kind of laughing about it. I said, ‘It’s funny now, but if you miss another ball, you’ll be back out here.”

Parker’s reaction to the two errors, the second, in particular, convinced his manager it was something they needed to address.

“The reason why we did it, is because after he did it the other day, he came in and slammed his glove, and was really frustrated by it,” Martinez explained. “So we thought: Let’s just bring him out to eliminate all that frustration. This way, he just focuses on getting hitters out. That’s what he does really well. So let’s just get him out here, get him going, hopefully he does it correctly, and hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But he’s really good. He’s getting ready for his next start, that’s the way he looks at it.”

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

“There was no negative to it,” Parker said on Wednesday afternoon, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“During the [last misplay Sunday], I kind of figured this was going to be happening. Luckily, we’re going to get to it before it becomes a bigger issue.

“I appreciate the work to get out there and work on it. It’s a good thing.”

“The thing is … regardless how he was pitching, because he’s been pitching really well, I always talk about the little things,” Martinez added, “… the little things that can really help you out, and these are some of the little things. You don’t necessarily take it for granted, but sometimes the game gets fast on you, and you say, ‘All I’ve got to do is get down, field the ball, and make a nice throw to first and be done with it.’ The point today was just to get him to relax, understand he can make this play, you know, hopefully 99 out of 100 times. Just keep it simple. And he did it well.”