MacKenzie Gore didn’t make it through the fifth inning and was charged with six runs. And a ninth-inning rally wasn’t enough as the Nats lost, 8-7, to the Mets.
MacKenzie Gore didn't make it out of the fifth inning, and the Nationals' rally fell just short in the ninth. Sometimes your ace has an off night. Sometimes you strand runners in pivotal situations. Sometimes you trail by three runs in the ninth inning. In those circumstances, you don’t escape. Or you aren’t supposed to, at least.
Before all of that, the MacKenzie Gore that the Nationals got Monday night wasn’t the one they have grown accustomed to. Gore entered as one of just 10 major leaguers with at least 10 starts, an ERA below 3.00 and a lights-out strikeout rate above 25 percent. He exited in the fifth inning with his lips pursed and the bases loaded, tepidly clutching a streak — 11 starts to begin the season without allowing more than three earned runs — that marked his next step toward ace status.
But as Washington faced National League East rival New York for this first time, command issues got Gore in trouble. A season-high 18.5 percent of his pitches were in noncompetitive locations, per TruMedia. He finished with a season-low two strikeouts, both of which came against the Mets’ No. 9 hitter, catcher Luis Torrens.
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