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.

"That's on us. That's on the lineup," center fielder Jacob Young said. "He keeps us in almost every game, and we just haven't been able to score the runs, especially in games like this where it's one or two. We haven't been able to scrap them together and get him some more wins. But he's had our back on the mound. Hopefully in the second half of the year, we can have his."

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.

"That's just something ... you don't really want to start that narrative," the lefty said. "We've thrown the ball well as a whole. There's been some tough losses. There's been a lot of good (opposing) arms. The guy threw the ball great today. It's just kind of the way baseball is sometimes. Continue to show up every day and do your job, that's what this game is about. That's what we're going to continue trying to do."

The Nationals, who finally wrapped up a stretch of 16 games in 16 days, now get a long-awaited day off before opening a three-game series in Anaheim on Friday night. They've gone 2-4 through the first two legs of their Southern California jaunt, three of the losses coming by one run a piece.

"We're either one hit away, or one play away," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've got to keep grinding. We've got to keep up with the energy. The energy was good today. You really saw them want to score some runs for MacKenzie today."

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 (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.

"You try to get something to spark a rally, hopefully get somebody on and then just get the one big hit you need in a game like that," Young said. "We knew MacKenzie was probably going to keep it at one. We just knew we needed to get on the board, make something happen, or at least try to get (Pivetta) out of the game, so we could get to the bullpen."

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.

"You just hope he kind of hits it at somebody, and he didn't," Gore said. "But he made a good play in center. That was kind of all they had."

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.

"They wanted to pick him up," Martinez said. "They were out there grinding. The other guy was pretty good as well today. We just couldn't pick up a couple runs for him."