Gore becomes second straight young Nats starter to dominate Mets (updated)

NEW YORK – The Nationals were looking for an encore from another one of their young starting pitchers after Josiah Gray tossed six scoreless innings against the Mets last night.

Next up in the rotation was MacKenzie Gore. And like Gray, he did not disappoint.

After Tuesday’s dazzling performance by the young right-hander acquired in the trade of Max Scherzer and Trea Turner two summers ago, the young left-hander acquired in the trade of Juan Soto and Josh Bell last summer held the Mets lineup in check while leading the Nationals to a 4-1 victory in front of 20,191 fans in Queens.

In doing so, Gore helped the Nationals seal their second consecutive series win. They will go for a Citi Field sweep here tomorrow night.

It’s hard not to see the similarities between the two games played here so far. Gray struck out nine batters last night using his four pitches. Gore struck out 10, matching his career high, and like Gray, he used his full arsenal to confuse the opposing lineup, with his fastball and curveball racking up the Ks.

The strikeouts were split evenly between the heater and breaking ball. Gore’s fastball averaged 95 mph and topped out at 97 mph, while his curveball averaged 82 mph and was thrown anywhere between 78-85 mph.

“They were in the zone," Gore said of his fastball and curveball. "Fastball was good and we were throwing pretty hard. We were just in the zone with everything and it was good.”

And much like Gray last night against Starling Marte, the biggest strikeout for Gore came at the end of his outing. Coming back out for the bottom of the sixth in a 2-1 game and at 88 pitches, the 24-year-old got two quick popouts in foul territory toward the Mets’ first base dugout: One caught by himself and one caught by first baseman Dominic Smith. But a six-pitch walk to Jeff McNeil brought the go-ahead run to the plate for the Mets.

Facing Tommy Pham – the only Mets batter to have hit against Gore with a .400 average in five at-bats coming into the game – the southpaw went curveball, fastball and back-to-back curveballs to strike out the designated hitter for the third time tonight.

“Like we talked about earlier, when he can pound the strike zone and use his fastball and throw strike one, he's gonna be what he was today: He's very effective," manager Davey Martinez said. "He's got a lot of movement on his ball. But I was so proud of him just going out there and trusting his fastball, keeping the ball down and using it. And he did that. Every now and then, he threw a slider when he needed to. But he was good, he was really good.”

That made this the third time in Gore’s young career he has reached 10 strikeouts in a single game, the last coming on June 4 in Milwaukee when he was pitching for the Padres. He finished this night completing six innings of one-run ball on four hits, two walks and the 10 strikeouts on 101 pitches, 61 for strikes.

“Double-digit strikeouts, they happen or they don't," he said. "But my stuff's good right now. If I get ahead of guys, I'm capable of striking some guys out.”

The one run wasn’t even necessarily his fault. Lane Thomas misplayed Eduardo Escobar's line drive to right, resulting in a triple. Then Gore almost got out of the inning, but Marte's single to left landed in front of Alex Call to give the Mets their first run of the series. Gore then got Francisco Lindor to pop out to short to end the frame.

Gore’s ERA on the season is now at 3.00 with an 11.7 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate to match Gray’s 2.93 ERA. Just like everyone envisioned to start the season.

“He was attacking the hitters early in the count," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "His four pitches were there, slider, fastball. He was getting ahead and getting quick outs.”

Another welcomed similarity between Tuesday and Wednesday night was the run support by the offense. Gore didn’t have the misfortune that Gray had in that department, but it was still important to see the offense have a similar follow-up.

The Nationals again jumped out to an early lead in the second inning, when a leadoff walk by Ruiz and double by Smith were followed by back-to-back RBI singles by Thomas and CJ Abrams.

Jeimer Candelario then hit his team-leading fourth home run to provide an insurance run in the seventh. Facing right-hander Jeff Brigham, the switch-hitter turned an 83 mph sweeper 102 mph down the right field line for a 369-foot homer.

Then in the eighth the Nats took advantage of some situational hitting against Adam Ottavino, with Victor Robles walking, advancing to second on an errant pickoff throw to first and then easily swiping third, and Call driving him home for the fourth run of the night.

Once again, that was enough to earn the win on this night. But the Nationals would still like to see more runs scored with the opportunities they created for themselves.

Facing right-hander Kodai Senga and his “ghost forkball,” the Nats’ leadoff man reached in four of the five innings the Mets starter pitched. Despite seven strikeouts, they were able to draw four walks and record five hits as Senga struggled with command at times.

“We've been working really hard on getting these guys to understand what balls they really hit well, getting the balls in the strike zone," Martinez said. "Senga's got great stuff. And we saw it. I mean, he struck out some guys. But the key was to be patient and get him in the zone. And when we did that, we got some key hits and that's what we got to continue to do. We got to be patient, we got to take our walks, we got to put the ball in play.”

They did finish the night with five leadoff men reaching and just 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position and 10 runners left on base.

More runs would have been especially welcomed, as it got a little too close for comfort in the seventh. Carl Edwards Jr., on the mound protecting the 3-1 lead in the seventh, issued back-to-back walks to pinch-hitters and a groundout to first to put two runners in scoring position for the heart of the Mets lineup.

Martinez took no chances, immediately going to fireman Hunter Harvey to escape the jam. Which he did with ease, striking out Marte on a 99 mph fastball and Lindor on a 91 mph splitter. Harvey then recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning to set up Kyle Finnegan for his fifth save of the season.

“You just come in and go at them and hope for the best, really," Harvey said of escaping the jam. "If you try to be too fine, then you start missing pitches, you start walking guys. And in my experience when I've tried to be fine, it doesn't work out good. So it's more of a 'Here it is. I'm giving you my best stuff. If you hit it, you hit it. If not, then that's how it is.'”

But as it did last night, this game belonged to the young starting pitcher. With Gore following Gray’s dominant performance with one of his own, the two hurlers are starting to show what a rotation led by them looks like.

“Yeah, this was good, man," Gore said. "That's a good team. I just expect a lot out myself. But yeah, this was good. It was a lot of fun.”