As the hits kept on coming, one after another, MacKenzie Gore stood on the mound with a look on his face that suggested anger, frustration and bewilderment all wrapped up in one.
The Nationals ace, an All-Star just a few weeks ago, the majors’ strikeout leader just a month ago, had faced six Athletics batters to open tonight’s game. Five of them had scored, all five of them having recorded base hits, two of them home runs.
Before having a chance to come up to bat themselves, the Nats already were well on their way to a 16-7 loss, yet another in a string of unsightly, lopsided August losses that have somehow made the disasters that were June and July look tame in comparison. And Gore, once again, was right in the middle of it all.
If there was supposed to be one thing the Nationals could count on during a miserable summer, it was their ace’s ability to give them a chance to win every time he took the mound. They might not provide him any run support, but he would at least leave them in a good position whenever his night was complete.
That simply has not been the case over the last month. In three of Gore’s last four starts, he has surrendered at least six runs. In the other one, he walked six batters.
Go back to June 15, and the left-hander owned a 2.89 ERA and 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings. That ERA is now all the way up to 4.29, that strikeout rate all the way down to 10.6 per nine.
If there was any reason to believe Gore’s recent struggles were a byproduct of speculation he could be dealt prior to last week’s trade deadline, he pretty much put those to rest during the top of the first tonight. With the knowledge he’s still part of this team through the remainder of the season (and in theory the next two seasons), he took the mound and immediately served up a leadoff homer to Shea Langeliers on a fastball down the pipe.
Gore didn’t have time to shake that off before he found himself in more trouble, surrendering three straight hits on three straight pitches, the last of them bringing home another run. He managed to record an out at last when he induced a fly ball out of Colby Thomas, but he followed that up with another grooved fastball, this one to Darell Hernaiz, who sent it flying to left-center for the inning’s second homer and a 5-0 lead.
Things would get modestly better for Gore after that, but he never did pitch a clean inning. He retired only two of four batters faced in the second, helped out by a double play grounder. He gave up another run in the third on a leadoff walk and back-to-back singles. And after he gave up back-to-back hits to open the fourth, his night was over after a mere 60 pitches.
Already trailing 7-0 at the time, Nationals interim manager Miguel Cairo had to turn over the game’s final six innings to a bullpen that already had been thrashed by the Brewers during a weekend sweep that featured three games very much like this one. Into the fire stepped Clayton Beeter, one of two new relievers added to the major league roster this afternoon. It did not go well for the 26-year-old right-hander acquired from the Yankees in the Amed Rosario trade.
Beeter immediately surrendered a two-run homer to JJ Bleday, making it 9-0, with the first eight runs all charged to Gore. He proceeded to finish out the inning without another ball being put into play, walking two and striking out three.
The onslaught continued, no matter who emerged from the bullpen gate. Orlando Ribalta also gave up a homer to the first batter he faced (Langeliers again) in the fifth. PJ Poulin did post a zero in his major league debut in the sixth. But Andry Lara also gave up a homer to the first batter he faced (Langeliers again) in the seventh, then gave up five more runs before his night was done.
All told, the Nationals pitching staff gave up 24 hits, one shy of the club record they established only four days ago. And that group has now allowed 101 opposing batters to reach base over the last four games, the first pitching staff to do that since the 1993 Phillies. That team actually went to the World Series. This one probably will not.