Another ragged start for Gore, Nats' last-ditch rally falls short (updated)

He entered the season as the Nationals’ most promising, highest ceiling, young starter. And two months in, MacKenzie Gore was building himself a case for an All-Star selection and the designation of staff ace.

Two-plus months later, the Nats are left wondering what in the world happened to make Gore’s season devolve this much. And what they’re supposed to do about it now.

With another laborious, abbreviated start featuring a lack of command, an inability to put away hitters and one back-breaking hit, Gore was roughed up yet again and left the Nationals in a hole they tried to climb out of but ultimately could not in a 6-4 loss to the Angels.

The left-hander lasted only four innings, giving up five runs (albeit five unearned runs) while letting 11 batters reach base, six via walk. His bullpen only poured more fuel on the fire, the team ultimately issuing 13 total walks during the affair, establishing a club record for a game of any length.

"If one guy walks, or you get a guy in scoring position, you're trying not to give up that hit or that run. You put a lot of pressure on yourself," manager Davey Martinez said. "That's the only thing I can think of. You're forcing yourself to get the ball over the plate. And that's when all the balls start happening. We've got to focus on just getting to the next pitch, and focus on that one batter, not try to get ahead of ourselves." 

And with an admittedly depleted lineup still waiting for CJ Abrams to return from back spasms getting carved up by unheralded Angels rookie Jack Kochanowicz, the Nationals looked asleep for most of this rare 11:35 a.m. Sunday contest before finally making things interesting late.

Trailing 6-0 in the eighth, they got a home run from Jacob Young, added another run and brought the tying run to the plate, only to watch Ildemaro Vargas line out to left to end the threat. But then they rallied again in the ninth, getting an infield single from Alex Call to cut the deficit to three, then a nine-pitch walk from Luis García Jr. to cut the deficit to two, the tying run now in scoring position, the winning run on base.

But Juan Yepez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, and that was the end of that. There was no miracle rally on this day, no third consecutive walk-off win to cap a wild weekend.

"I think we've done a really good job all year of fighting to the end there, especially in the ninth inning, by just passing it back, whether it's a walk or a hit," Young said. "Right there, we were one swing away from walking them off three times in a row. If you give yourselves a chance, you've got to feel pretty good there."

The greater concern at the moment, to be honest, involves Gore, who has turned into a shell of his earlier self.

Through his first 11 starts this season, he sported a 2.91 ERA and 1.278 WHIP while walking only 2.6 batters per nine innings. In 13 starts since, his ERA is 6.02, his WHIP is 1.842 and he’s walking 5.1 batters per nine innings.

"This has been tough," he said. "Trying to figure out how to get back to pitching well and giving us a good chance to win every time out. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm going to keep working. I've got the right people around me, and I think we're doing the right things before the starts. I'm just not executing when I get out there."

Gore’s last two starts showed at least some modest signs of improvement, so there was genuine hope he would continue on an upward track when he took the mound this morning against a less-than-imposing Angels lineup. Then he needed 29 pitches to get through the top of the first, even though no runs scored in the process, and it was like he was right back to square one.

Gore was able to get to two strikes on multiple hitters, but he wasn’t able to put enough of them away. And continuing an especially frustrating trend, he gave up 16 foul balls in the first two innings alone, his stuff good enough to avoid loud contact but not good enough to induce swings and misses, especially with two strikes.

"I felt like there were a lot of foul balls today," he said. "I'm not entirely sure if it's because we're a tick down in velo, or if the stuff has ticked down, why they're not popping it up or missing it. They're fouling it off. There were some at-bats where that happened today."

Gore, who insisted he's not dealing with anything physically, muddled his way through his first three innings without suffering any damage on the scoreboard. He could not muddle his way through an agonizing top of the fourth in which his teammates gave him little help but he did little himself to make up for it. First baseman Yepez couldn’t get to a hard grounder to his right, turning it into a single. Then José Tena couldn’t handle a sharp grounder right at him that could’ve become a 5-4-3 double play but instead turned into a disastrous error and injury for the young third baseman.

In his attempt to secure the ball, Tena was struck on the right thumb, which was bleeding by the time director of athletic training Paul Lessard made it to him. The hero of Saturday night’s win – and the first player in franchise history with a walk-off hit in his team debut – was now departing with his thumb wrapped in a towel.

Tena's thumbnail was cut, but X-rays came back negative, so there's no broken bone. 

"I thought (Gore) could've gotten out of it, but we couldn't turn a double play," Martinez said. "Thank goodness José's OK. His nail's a little beat up, but he's going to be fine. If we get out of that inning there, it's a different game."

Gore wasn’t to blame for bad defense, but he was to blame for everything else that happened that inning. Including the four walks he issued. And the three-run double he allowed to Kevin Pillar on a 1-2 fastball to cap a five-run inning, even if none of them technically was an earned run.

So when the top of the fourth finally ended, so did Gore’s outing. He needed 86 pitches to get there, and he allowed 11 batters to reach base via five hits and six walks. Which made this only the latest chapter of a fast-fading season for the left-hander.

"I'm going to figure it out," he said. "I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing that. I'm tired of saying it. But I'm not going to sit here and just pout about it. I've got to be better and figure it out."

Not that today’s offensive performance by the Nationals was any more encouraging. Trying to avoid a weekend sweep, the Angels sent to the mound Kochanowicz, a 23-year-old right-hander who doesn’t rank among the organization’s top prospects, who has a 5.39 ERA in 76 career minor league appearances and had been beaten around in each of his previous two big league starts to the tune of a combined 12 runs and 14 hits over seven innings that required 134 pitches.

Through seven innings today, Kochanowicz had allowed three hits and one walk, with no runs crossing the plate, on a scant 72 pitches.

"He was a little funky motion, and then the sinker/fastball, whatever you want to call it, was moving a little more than I think we thought it was going to," Young said. "He was throwing it well, almost effectively erratic, kind of all over the place. When he was in the zone, it was moving a lot. That fastball just kind of threw us off."

Young did manage to thwart the shutout attempt with his second career homer in the bottom of the eighth, García Jr. added a two-out RBI single and the Nats wound up forcing Ron Washington to turn to his bullpen.

And by day's end, they somehow found themselves one swing away from pulling off a miracle. A miracle that ultimately never came to fruition.