Gore again brushes off early struggles to deliver quality start

PHILADELPHIA – The Phillies couldn’t touch MacKenzie Gore five weeks ago in their Opening Day encounter, the best start of the lefty’s career. Only one batter reached base against him that afternoon at Nationals Park. Thirteen of the 18 who stepped to the plate returned to the dugout muttering to themselves after striking out.

There’s a bit too much talent in that lineup, though, for lightning to strike twice. And from the outset of Tuesday night’s game, Philadelphia’s hitters made it clear this game against Gore would be different.

With a quick-strike homer from Kyle Schwarber in the first inning and another homer from No. 9 batter Johan Rohas in the third, Gore put the Nationals in a 3-0 hole and looked on the verge of falling apart.

But anyone who has been paying attention this month knows the most significant stride Gore has made isn’t his ability to dominate an opponent. It’s his ability to keep a downward-trending start from slipping away altogether.

So it was that Gore gutted his way through six innings Tuesday, allowing only five baserunners along the way. Schwarber and Rojas hit the two homers. Trea Turner produced three singles all by himself. And nobody else in the Phillies lineup did anything against Gore, who emerged with his fifth quality start in seven outings to begin the season.

“Obviously, the homers are going to drive me crazy,” he said. “But I thought we threw the ball well.”

Because the game turned on its head in the ninth inning, with the Nationals storming back to score four runs and take their first lead of the night, then the Phillies responding with the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the inning, Gore’s six-inning start felt like an afterthought at night’s end. But it shouldn’t be overlooked, because without it, the Nats may never have had a chance to embark on their stirring rally.

But first, about the homers: Turner led off the bottom of the first with a single to right. Bryce Harper followed with a laser to the warning track in right that was caught by Crews. And then Schwarber did what he has so often done over the years: Mash a first-pitch fastball to the bleachers. Gore seemed to think he could blow a 96 mph heater up in the zone past the big slugger. He was wrong, and the Phillies led 2-0 only three batters into the game.

“I probably didn’t get the ball up to Schwarber enough, but I tried to beat him to the spot,” Gore said. “I knew he was probably swinging. Now that he hit it out, I’ll probably look back and wish I threw him something else. I tried to beat him to the spot, and I didn’t.”

Two innings later, Rojas – not exactly known as a home run threat – managed to muscle his first of the season to left-center, extending the lead to 3-0 and raising doubts about Gore’s likelihood of lasting much deeper into this game.

But as he’d already shown in several prior starts, the left-hander figured it out and salvaged something from the game. He retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced, getting a pair of big strikeouts of Schwarber and Nick Castellanos with a runner on third in the top of the third.

“He was mixing all his pitches, but he kept the ball down for the most part and really looked good,” manager Davey Martinez said. “To give us six innings the way he did was awesome.”

Gore was able to give the Nats six innings without reaching the 100-pitch mark because of his ability to throw strikes with any of his pitches. It’s a fact that shows up in plain sight on his stat page. In 41 innings, he has struck out 59 batters while walking only nine.

That’s in stark contrast to his 2024 season, when Gore walked 3.5 batters per nine innings and often saw his starts spiral out of control with one rough inning. That hasn’t happened yet this year, with Gore allowing more than three runs only once in his seven starts.

“The thing about him this year is that he’s matured a lot,” Martinez said. “He understands what he needs to do to get out of jams and mix in his pitches. When he doesn’t have something working, he goes to something else.”