SAN DIEGO – MacKenzie Gore has pitched like an ace this season. He leads the National League in strikeouts. His ERA resides in the low-3.00s. Only five major leaguers have totaled more than his 11 quality starts.
So how come Gore now sports a 3-8 record? Because no matter how well he’s pitched, his teammates can’t seem to consistently provide him the kind of support the left-hander needs to emerge victorious.
That troubling trend reached a new low this afternoon at Petco Park, where Gore was good once again and once again got no help from the rest of the Nationals during a disheartening 1-0 loss to the Padres.
Gore allowed only one run over six innings, rarely surrendering loud contact. But San Diego’s Nick Pivetta allowed zero runs over seven innings, and that was the difference in the game.
The Nationals couldn’t even take advantage of the absence of Padres All-Star closer Robert Suarez, who finally began serving the suspended levied upon him by Major League Baseball five days ago and was unavailable to pitch the ninth. It did not matter, because Adrian Morejon capably filled in and posted a zero in the top of the ninth to wrap up a game in which the Nats totaled three singles and zero walks and never even gave themselves a chance to bat with a runner in scoring position.
This was the fifth time this season the Nationals have scored zero or one run in Gore’s 17 starts.
Only 17 hours after jumping on Padres starter Ryan Bergert, with seven of their first 11 batters reaching base, the Nationals endured a particularly sluggish start against Pivetta, their long-ago pitching prospect who was traded to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon nearly a decade ago. They sent the minimum 12 batters to the plate through four innings, the only guy who successfully reached (Daylen Lile) immediately getting picked off first base.
And they didn’t do much more after that. Despite getting one hit a piece in the fifth (Alex Call’s line drive to center) and sixth (Jacob Young’s bunt single), the Nats never advanced either runner beyond first base, struggling to do anything against Pivetta. James Wood, in particular, looked lost at the plate, striking out in each of his first three at-bats.
Pivetta would depart after seven scoreless innings, having struck out 10 without issuing a walk, his pitch count a modest 90.
Gore was no slouch himself, and on most any other day would’ve been viewed as the superior starting pitcher. The left-hander did have to deal with a bit more traffic on the bases (five of San Diego’s first 10 batters reached) but that was entirely off weak contact singles and a couple of walks.
The Padres did manage to turn that into one run in the bottom of the second, taking advantage of a walk drawn by No. 8 hitter Tyler Wade and a slow-roller single down the third base line by No. 8 batter Elias Díaz. After a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, three-time batting champ Luis Arraez did what he does best and poked an RBI single to left-center. The bright spot: Young (who was playing well in against the slap-hitting Arraez) got to the ball quickly and made a perfect throw to the plate to nail the trailing runner at keep the deficit at 1-0.
Gore wasn’t necessarily the best version of himself, striking out a mere one batter per inning and issuing three walks. But he was highly effective, allowing only that one run. And after making three nice plays in the field himself in the bottom of the sixth, he departed having pitched more than well enough to earn his fourth win, yet in line for his eighth loss due to the complete lack of run support.