Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose first game of 2024 to Marlins; MacKenzie Gore solid again…

Notes and quotes on another positive MacKenzie Gore start and the first Nationals’ loss of the season to the Marlins…

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In his second straight solid outing, after a long stretch of less-than-stellar starts, 25-year-old lefty MacKenzie Gore put together a six-inning, two-run, 102-pitch turn in the Washington Nationals’ rotation in D.C. last week in which he issued just one walk and struck out six of 26 batters he faced in a 5-2 win over NY’s Yankees.

“He threw strikes, he made some really good pitches,” manager Davey Martinez said after Gore’s 27th start of the season.

“Changeup was really effective. Slider was good. But his fastball is always electric. That’s his pitch.”

Gore collected 14 swinging and 18 called strikes overall against the Yankees, eight of each on his four-seam fastball, which he threw 53% of the time, with his velocity up a tick on his average velo for the year.

“I thought we were just kind of explosive, down the mound, stuff was good,” Gore said in assessing his own start. “Average fastball velo was back where it needs to be. I felt good.”

Looking to build on consecutive positive outings, Gore took the mound last night in Miami and retired the first 16 Marlins’ batters he faced, striking out seven, but then the southpaw issued a one-out walk in the sixth, before he gave up an RBI double in the next at-bat that put the home team up 1-0 in the second game of three this week in loanDepot park. Gore picked up back-to-back Ks (one looking, and the last swinging) for nine total from 20 total batters in six strong in which he threw 93 pitches.

Gore finished the outing with 17 swinging strikes (seven on his fastball, which he threw 52% of the time), and 16 called strikes, (11 on his fastball).

Miami added another run in the seventh, off Jacob Barnes, but a bases-loaded walk by José Tena, an RBI groundout by Andrés Chaparro, and an RBI double by James Wood made it a 3-2 game in the Nationals’ favor in the seventh, before the Marlins tied it up in the eighth then won it in extras, 4-3 final, and 8-1 vs the Fish this year.

“For me, the story is MacKenzie, that was really good,” Martinez said after the loss.

“He pitched really well, gave us six strong innings. His changeup was really good, but his fastball was electric too. He pitched well. He pitched really well.”

The late-season surge for Gore, the manager said, is a positive for the relatively young left-hander going into the winter after a prolonged (pitcher) slump.

“He’s been great, it’s awesome. We want him to finish up strong going into the winter break and build some confidence with him,” Martinez explained, “… 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.”

KEIBERT RUIZ FINDING SOMETHING:

Keibert Ruiz was 0 for 19 at the plate over his previous five games before he went 3 for 4 with a double, single, and homer, in that order, in Tuesday’s series opening win in Miami, finishing the night a triple short of the cycle in his 20th multi-hit game of the season.

“He laid off some pitches and got the ball up a bit and smoked some balls,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters after a 6-2 win over the Marlins.

“It was good to see him have a good day today, it really was.”

“Don’t try to do too much, look for my pitch and just trusting myself,” Ruiz said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, of what went right on his three-hit night in Miami.

“I’ve been working on some things in the cage, and just got to have the plan and bring it to the game.”

Asked what the focus of his work in the cage was, Ruiz said it was fairly simple.

“Swinging at strikes,” Ruiz explained. “Like I said, I’m not trying to do more, just staying more like to the middle.”

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

“For me with him it’s about just being consistent,” Martinez said of Ruiz’s growth at the plate this season. “He’s got to learn what he did today, and focus on doing that tomorrow.

“Today, he laid off a lot of balls down, got the ball up. He’s really good at hitting the balls up. If he can continue to do that — he can swing the bat, we all know he’s got unbelievable bat-to-ball skills.

“I think he thinks he can hit every ball hard, you know, but he needs to understand the strike zone a little better.”

Considering he’s in the second year of an 8-year/$50M deal he signed with the ballclub last year, getting consistently good at-bats from the presumed No. 1 catcher in D.C. for the next six-plus years is a big deal for the rebooting Nationals.

“He’ll definitely help us offensively,” Martinez said. “I really believe Keibert is a 20-25 home run guy. We’ve seen a little bit of it last year, but just putting the ball in play, for him, hard, you can see that come out of him.

“It’s all about the chase with him, it really is, so just focus on swinging at strikes and he’s going to be okay.”

Before Tuesday’s game, Martinez talked at length about the growth he’s seen in Ruiz behind the plate, with the defensive metrics, a reporter noted, “liking him more” recently, showing improvement for the backstop over the course of the season.

“I love it that he’s not taking his at-bats right now into his defense,” Martinez said.

“He’s done really well. It’s something that he’s worked on with [Nationals’ Catching & Strategy Coach] Henry [Blanco], all year long and he’s getting better. So to me that’s a bonus for us right now. We want him to continue to get better, finish the season strong defensively, and don’t bring his hitting into the defensive part, it’s two different things.

“But I attribute it to him really working at it, really talking about it. Him and Henry have been working really hard on sequencing, calling games, a little bit of throwing, blocking balls, all that stuff, so it’s good to see that he’s making progress.”

A move to have him set up with one knee down defensively, the manager said, has made a big difference as Ruiz has tried to make adjustments following a tough behind the plate for the young-ish catcher in 2023, and Martinez said it’s had a positive effect on Ruiz’s game.

“Two knees, staying up on two feet, he had a tough time getting down on the low pitches,” Martinez explained. “The reason why I put him down on one knee is to steal some of those low strikes. He’s been getting a lot better. I’ve talked to some umpires about it, and they seem to say they see the ball a lot better when guys are down on one knee really low, so it’s definitely helped him.”

BONUS QUOTES – DAVEY MARTINEZ ON OLD SCHOOL CREWS:

Davey Martinez has been really impressed with what he’s seen from 2023 No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews in the 22-year-old outfielder’s first few weeks in the majors.

“He’s really learning,” Martinez said, “he’s the guy sitting at the top of the dugout watching pitches, watching the pitcher work, what he does, watching our at-bats.”

Is a young player these days, not watching an iPad, but watching pitchers live from the top step of the dugout, unique?

“I always say that’s old school,” the manager told reporters. “I mean, he’s not running to the iPad. He’s sitting there and he’s learning by watching the game, which is pretty cool.”

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

It is, after all, how Martinez (and many before him) did it in the days before iPads in dugouts and instant data on and footage of opposing pitchers.

“You learn a lot by watching the games,” Martinez said. “It’s the way I was brought up as a player, and people before me and even people after me. You can still learn a lot from the iPad, but if you watch the game, the game can tell you a lot. And he does that. He watches pitchers, how [they] attack right-handed hitters, what they’re trying to do, the spin on the ball, and the changeup, how it’s working.

“He led off the other day and he went right to [Andrés] Chaparro and was telling him, ‘Hey, his slider has a little more bite than we thought, so get the ball up,’ so it was awesome to hear him talk about it.”