Gore bruised but should be good to make next start

Though he’s sporting an impressive bruise on his upper left leg, Nationals ace MacKenzie Gore appears to be fine and doesn’t expect to miss his next scheduled start.

Gore was struck by a 101.4 mph comebacker off Willy Adames’ bat in the top of the second Friday night, and though he went on to complete the play and pitch six scoreless innings against the Giants, the leg stiffened up on him by the top of the seventh. After Gore issued a leadoff walk to Jung Hoo Lee and then two straight balls to Matt Chapman, manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard came to the mound to check on him and convinced him to depart the game.

One day later, the left-hander appears to be fine, if admittedly still a little sore.

“He’s got a nice bruise, but he’s fine,” Martinez said. “I talked to him. He said he’ll be good.”

Gore was able to pitch an additional five innings after getting hit by the line drive by using heat on his leg while the Nats were batting, keeping it warm. But on an unseasonably cool late-May night, he couldn’t keep it warm all the way into the seventh and reached a point where his leg felt dead.

“By the seventh, it was just pretty heavy and dead,” he said. “It was the back leg, so … I mean, I didn’t want to do what I did, but there was kind of nothing I could do at that point.”

Gore will continue to treat the bruise, which is on the side of his left thigh, slightly above the knee, and then take the mound in a few days for his standard between-starts bullpen session. With the Nationals off Monday before opening their first West Coast trip of the season, his next scheduled start should come Thursday against the Mariners in Seattle.

“He’s just going to have to get that bruise down,” Martinez said. “He’ll be fine. He’ll throw his bullpen like regular and we’ll see how he does. But he should be OK.”

* Though he’s now on the 10-day injured list, Jacob Young will continue to do as much work as he can without his left shoulder being impacted.

Young, who was diagnosed with a sprained AC joint after colliding with the center field wall in Baltimore one week ago, is not able to take a full swing without experiencing shoulder pain on the follow-through. But he said he can run through all defensive drills, make throws and run with no issues.

He’ll continue to do all of that while waiting for the shoulder to heal, which he hopes will allow him to complete his rehab faster once he’s cleared for full swings.

“We’ll keep an eye on him,” Martinez said. “We’ll have to start him off slow, have him hit off the tee once he’s ready. But I told him, 'The biggest thing is you’ve got to keep the rest of your body going, so that when you’re ready to really start swinging, you’re good to go.'”

* Dylan Crews, on the other hand, will be more restricted as he begins his rehab from a left oblique strain. The rookie outfielder won’t be running through any baseball activities for a while, restricted instead to strengthening exercises.

“Very light, but trying to get some strength back in his side,” Martinez said. “It’s going to take him some time. Everybody’s different. I hope because he’s a strong kid and works out religiously, it doesn’t take him so long. But we’ll see.”