Gore stumbles in sixth, bats remain quiet in fourth straight loss (updated)

PHILADELPHIA – MacKenzie Gore needed some sign of encouragement in his 25th start. If he wasn’t already, the young left-hander was nearing a point of his season spiraling out of control.

Gore was fantastic through the first two months of his second campaign with the Nationals. Through his first 11 starts, he was 4-4 with a 2.91 ERA, numbers worthy of his first All-Star selection.

But as the calendar flipped to June, his results turned south. Over his last 13 starts, Gore is 3-6 with a 6.02 ERA to raise his season ERA to 4.50 entering tonight’s outing against the Phillies.

For five innings, Gore’s results were much better. But as it has too often lately, one bad inning derailed the whole outing leading to a Nationals loss, this time by a score of 5-1 in front of 43,356 fans at Citizens Bank Park.

Whatever Gore worked on with the Nats coaching staff during Wednesday’s bullpen session, it was working through five frames. Gore relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it half of the time, and then used a steady mix of his slider, changeup and curveball to get through five innings with one run and four hits.

The run came after a questionable ball four call for Alec Bohm extended the fourth inning with two outs. Nick Castellanos hit Gore's next pitch for an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1. But other than that, Gore was through five innings of one-run ball on 68 pitches, easily his best start in recent memory.

“I thought we attacked guys," Gore said after the game. "Got in better counts. And when we didn't, we got back in them. Got some guys when we needed to on the ground and we kept the ball in the yard. That's the important thing here in this park."

It all fell apart in the sixth. Trea Turner led off with a double to left to immediately put a runner in scoring position. After striking out Bryce Harper, Gore surrendered three straight singles to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead.

The second out of the inning came on a force out at second, but that still left runners on the corners. A first-pitch RBI single by Edmundo Sosa finished Gore’s night with the Phils still looking for more. Joe La Sorsa, who had his contract selected from Triple-A Rochester this afternoon while Robert Garcia went on the bereavement list, allowed one of the inherited runners to score before the inning ended.

“MacKenzie threw the ball really well for five innings," manager Davey Martinez said. "I gave him every opportunity to try to get out of the sixth inning, he just couldn't do it. But he threw the ball way better. Way better. Efficiency was good. He was attacking the strike zone. Everything was down. When he got hit, he got the ball up. But he threw the ball better.”

Gore's seemingly promising line closed at 5 ⅔ innings, nine hits, five runs, two walks and six strikeouts on 92 pitches, 58 strikes.

“Against a team like this, it's all about beating them to a spot or getting them off-balanced, whatever it is," he said. "And in the sixth, I didn't do that.”

Yet, while Gore’s regression surely is a big concern for the Nationals, a larger one might be the lack of offense.

Cristopher Sánchez, who was charged with seven runs and 12 hits in 4 ⅔ innings in his last start, held the Nats to only one run on two hits in his second complete game of his career, both coming this year.

“Our offense didn't show up today," Martinez said. "We couldn't get nothing going. I know Sánchez mixed up his pitches. For the most part, he kept the ball down. We just couldn't get nothing going offensively.”

Alex Call actually gave the Nationals an early lead with a leadoff home run in the fourth, his second of the year to be the first baserunner of the night.

“I was just trying to get a good pitch and go up the middle," Call said. "It just kind of floated in there and saw it well. I thought it was right down the middle, but looking back it was on the corner. So it was good to see it go over the fence.”

The Nats only got two other runners on base the rest of the way via Andrés Chaparro’s leadoff single in the eighth and Call reaching on an error by Turner in the ninth.

“His fastball was good," Call said. "A good sinker tonight. It was firm, but also sinking. And then, he had the changeup, too. So just kept us off-balance.”

Sánchez finished the game with just two hits, one run, no walks and four strikeouts on a mere 99 pitches, 71 strikes.

“Left-handed, we tried to get the ball out over the plate," Martinez said. "We swung the balls that were sinking in. Right-handers, we're trying to stay on the ball and try to hit the ball the other way. … We just couldn't do it.”

This was the Nats’ fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six games. Over these first three games against the Phillies, they’ve been outscored 21-6 and outhit 37-21.

“I thought I did some things well today, but another game of just giving up five runs," Gore said. "We're just getting our butt kicked right now and it's not fun. Just another day where I wasn't good enough to win. And like I said, I thought we did some things better, but we end up giving up five runs. So we did some things better, but it was still pretty frustrating.”