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CINCINNATI – MacKenzie Gore survived the rain and mud, digging deep to keep this afternoon’s series finale under control just as it looked like it might slip away.
And because the burgeoning ace was able to do that, Luis García Jr. and CJ Abrams were able to provide the necessary late offensive fireworks that allowed the Nationals to celebrate a 4-1 victory with the sun finally shining at the end of a long, rain-soaked weekend at Great American Ball Park.
With Gore surviving a harrowing top of the fifth as the heavens unloaded on him, and his teammates rallying for three runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead for good, the Nats closed out an eventful road trip in enjoyable fashion. They took two of three from the Reds and salvaged a 3-3 week away from home that began with a tough series in Philadelphia.
“You look at it as: We played really well the last four games of the road trip,” said Gore of a ballclub that’s now 16-19 on the season and 15-13 since a miserable opening week. “We’re playing well. We’re a run away from being in a great spot. We just have to keep showing up and expecting to win every day, and good things will happen.”
The major league leader in strikeouts entering the day, Gore pretty clearly had sharp stuff from the get-go today. Even though he opened his start allowing back-to-back singles, each came on a ground ball that didn’t leave the infield. And he had little trouble getting out of the inning without anybody crossing the plate, recording his first strikeout of the afternoon to strand a pair on base.
Tyler Stephenson did manage to reach down and drive a low curveball over the left field wall for a leadoff homer in the second, the lone blemish on Gore’s pitching line. He responded by retiring seven straight batters, five via strikeout.
“I really believe when he’s throwing strikes, the guys play behind him,” manager Davey Martinez said. “That’s the key. That goes for anybody. When you’re out there and throwing strikes and keeping us in the game, the guys are out there and they’re intense. They’re trying to win the ballgame.”
By the time he took the mound for the bottom of the fifth, Gore already had seven strikeouts and a modest pitch count of 67, primed for a quality start. And then the heavens opened up over Great American Ball Park, though apparently not enough to warrant the weekend’s fourth rain delay.
As he dodged raindrops and mud puddles, Gore issued back-to-back walks to open the inning, then struck out Santiago Espinal, then watched as Elly De La Cruz demolished a baseball and sent it screaming down the left field line. The ball clanged off something, and third base umpire Sean Barber seemed to believe it was the foul pole, hence the home run signal he gave, setting off fireworks and a light show in the ballpark. Gore, though, vehemently argued it was a foul ball. And after all four umpires huddled up to discuss, Barber changed his call and sent De La Cruz back to the plate, much to the crowd’s dismay.
“Everybody knew it was foul,” Gore said. “I wasn’t really worried. It was obviously a foul ball, and they were on it.”
With the rain really coming down now, Gore slipped and fell while throwing ball four to De La Cruz, prompting a visit from his manager and director of athletic training, and prompting the umpires to call for the grounds crew. Not to roll out the tarp, but to work on the mound in hopes of preventing another slip and fall.
“At that point, you didn’t want to stop (the game),” said Gore, who grabbed his right calf but was relieved to realize he wasn’t hurt. “It was kind of a weird play, and I came up a little off. But at that point, you want to finish the inning. It was raining, but it wasn’t, like, pouring out there. It just kind of is what it is. We got through it.”
It wasn’t pretty, and Gore looked ready to lose his mind if anything else went wrong, but he somehow found a way to get through it and win a seven-pitch battle with Noelvi Marte, throwing one final curveball on his 100th pitch of the day for his ninth strikeout.
“He was adamant about wanting to finish,” Martinez said. “And he did a great job. I don’t think, when you’re out there competing, the weather really matters. You’re going to get through it, and he got through it.”
The game was knotted at 1-1 at that point, so Gore couldn’t get credit with the win despite his performance. His teammates, though, made sure it wouldn’t be in vain with a spirited top-of-the-seventh rally to take the lead.
Held to one run over six innings by Reds starter Nick Martinez, the Nationals feasted on the Cincinnati bullpen. García provided the big blow with a go-ahead homer down the right field line off a cutter from Graham Ashcraft that was well inside the zone but not far enough inside to prevent him from keeping the ball fair.
“I was looking for that inside cutter, and that’s why I was able to keep my hands inside,” García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “He’s one of the pitchers that always is slider in, cutter in, so you have to do that.”
Singles by Alex Call and Dylan Crews (the latter snapping an 0-for-23 slump) and then a fielder’s choice by Jacob Young forced Terry Francona to summon lefty Taylor Rogers to face Abrams. And then with runners on the corners and two out, Young pulled off a sneaky-important stolen base. Important, because it put him in position to score moments later on Abrams’ two-run base hit to left-center, extending the lead to 4-1.
“It’s big. You want to take the pressure off the pitchers, score as many as you can,” said Abrams, who extended his hitting streak to 10 games and is now batting .287 with an .866 OPS. “It came in handy.”
With a lead now in hand, Martinez entrusted the rest of the game to the back end of a bullpen that quietly started to come together during this road trip. Jorge López tossed two scoreless innings for his fifth consecutive scoreless outing. Jose A. Ferrer posted a zero in the eighth. And Kyle Finnegan closed out the ninth for his 11th save in 13 tries, giving the Nats bullpen a sparkling 1.15 ERA over the last four games.
“I can’t say enough about what MacKenzie did in those conditions. … He kept us in the ballgame,” Martinez said. “And then Jorge López came in and really shut the door down, and we able to score some runs.”
