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SAN DIEGO — MacKenzie Gore glared at Juan Soto, who stared back as he stood in the batter’s box. They nodded their heads and exchanged a few playful jokes. Gore – who has long played in the stadium where he thought he would pitch – was undeterred by Soto and the moment. And then he proved it by knocking out Soto to pin runners at the corners in the fifth inning.
At the moment, the strikeout – Gore’s ninth goal of the game – was significant as it ensured Sunday’s game remained a tie through the sixth inning. And when the Nationals hit seven runs in the next two innings en route to an 8-3 win, the punchout was all the more important. Washington clinched its first consecutive win since late May.
“I’m getting pretty competitive out there,” said Gore, who said he enjoyed the back-and-forth with Soto. “It was cool. But the whole squad knows me. They’ve seen me for a while so it’s a lot of fun. Like I said, big win for us. Bullpen was great and we got a lot of runs.”
A little over a month ago, Gore faced the Padres and was a little excited. He fired arrows at 99 miles per hour past the Padres’ bats, but was also erratic in leading his command. He allowed three runs, including two home runs, and ran four over 4⅔ innings.
So when Gore fired his first pitch at Padres leadoff hitter Ha-Seong Kim — a 95.3-mph fastball right in the middle for the strike — it was positive. He didn’t throw as hard as he could, but he didn’t need to throw effectively either.
“From the first pitch I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll be fine,'” said manager Dave Martinez. “He just controlled his emotions. He stayed with every hit. Came to the next pitch. He threw the ball well.”
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That showed when he knocked out Kim with another four-seam fastball. He then did the same with Fernando Tatis Jr. In the second inning, he knocked out Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts with the same pitch. The only hitters he didn’t take out with a fastball in the first two innings were Soto and Jake Cronenworth — Gore caught them with sliders instead.
Gore set a franchise record with six consecutive strikeouts in the game’s opener. Nelson Cruz hit a single and opened the third game, although the play was initially called a miss after Jeimer Candelario – who gave Gore a 1-0 lead with his second home run in the first inning in as many games – bobbled the ball twice. But all was forgotten when Austin Nola hit a 6-4-3 doubleplay two pitches later.
While Gore was able to use his emotions, he remained expressive throughout the course of his performance. In the fourth inning, he allowed two two-out singles against Machado and Bogaerts, sending runners into the corners. But he blasted a 95.6 mph fastball past Cronenworth into the final of the inning and yelled at the ground before exiting the mound.
Gore struggled with efficiency, throwing 76 pitches in the first four innings, including 27 in the fourth. And Gore again had corner runners and two outs in the fifth round. Gore blocked Tatis, but Tatis was able to hit the ball into right field for a single. Gore slammed his hand into the padding along the third baseline after conceding the game-winning goal. But when Gore hit Soto for the third time in the game, he was the only pitcher, along with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Max Fried, to pull off the feat.
In the sixth inning, the Nationals (30-47) hit three straight singles to take control of the game. Joey Meneses hit the third ball down the middle to give Washington a 2-1 lead, and Stone Garrett followed with a sacrifice flight to extend the lead to 3-1. The Padres (37-41) occupied bases late in the inning after Mason Thompson ran three hitters, but Joe La Sorsa, who was called up last week after Carl Edwards Jr. was injured, slammed Gary Sánchez with a full count escape the traffic jam.
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Washington took advantage of the missed opportunity to blast the game. Derek Hill reached when Padres pitcher Tim Hill fielded a grounder and hit a miss to first base. After CJ Abrams was hit by a pitch, Lane Thomas hit an RBI single down the middle to give Washington some safety before Tim Hill made a second throwing error that allowed Luis García to reach bases and load. Candelario and Meneses hit back-to-back doubles in two runs, and the Nationals used the fifth run in five to secure an 8-1 lead. Meneses increased his batting average to a .446 with the runners in scoring position with his runs scoring hits.
The Nationals have struggled to support their starters on the run lately. Sunday’s performance was the highest in a game this month, more than enough to reward Gore with the win. And the Nationals packed their bags for Seattle, overcoming a poor start to the series and playing two away games.
“It feels great, especially after a bad period where we didn’t win a lot of games,” said Meneses. “Coming in here, winning two games out of three and beating a good team at the other end gives us a little bit more confidence.”