SAN DIEGO — MacKenzie Gore stared down Juan Soto, who glared back as he stood in the batter’s box. They nodded their heads and exchanged some playful banter. Gore — playing in the ballpark in which he imagined he would pitch for a long time — wasn’t fazed by Soto or the moment. And then he proved it by striking out Soto to keep runners stranded on the corners in the fifth inning.
At the moment, the strikeout — Gore’s ninth of the game — loomed large because it kept Sunday’s game tied heading into the sixth inning. And when the Nationals broke out for seven runs over the next two innings en route to an 8-3 victory, the punchout was that much more important. Washington earned its first series victory since late May.
“I get pretty competitive out there,” said Gore, who said he enjoyed the back-and-forth with Soto. “It was cool. But that whole lineup, they know me. They’ve seen me for a while, so it’s a lot of fun. Like I said, big series win for us. Bullpen was great, and we scored a lot of runs.”
Just over a month ago, Gore faced off against the Padres and was a bit amped up. He fired 99-mph darts past Padres bats but also was erratic with his command. He allowed three runs, including a pair of home runs, and walked four over 4⅔ innings.
So when Gore fired his first pitch to Padres leadoff hitter Ha-Seong Kim — a 95.3-mph fastball right down the middle for the strike — that served as a positive. He wasn’t throwing as hard as possible, but he didn’t have to to pitch effectively.
“Right from the first pitch, I said, ‘Okay, we’re going to be okay,'” Manager Dave Martinez said. “He just controlled his emotions. He stayed in each at-bat. Got to the next pitch. He threw the ball well.”
That showed when he struck out Kim with another four-seam fastball. Then he did the same with Fernando Tatis Jr. In the second inning, he punched out Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts with the same pitch. The only hitters he didn’t strike out with a fastball in the first two innings were Soto and Jake Cronenworth — Gore got them with sliders instead.
Gore set a franchise record with six consecutive strikeouts to open the game. Nelson Cruz reached on a single to open the third, though the play was initially called an error after Jeimer Candelario — who gave Gore a 1-0 lead with his second first-inning homer in as many games — bobbled the ball twice. But all was forgotten once Austin Nola hit into a 6-4-3 double play two pitches later.
Gore might have harnessed his emotions, but he remained expressive as his outing progressed. In the fourth inning, he allowed a pair of two-out singles to Machado and Bogaerts, putting runners on the corners. But he blew a 95.6-mph fastball past Cronenworth for the final out of the inning and screamed at the ground before he walked off the mound.
Gore struggled with efficiency, throwing 76 pitches in the first four innings, including 27 in the fourth. And Gore found himself with runners on the corners and two outs again in the fifth. Gore jammed Tatis, but Tatis was able to hit the ball into right field for a single. Gore slammed his hand against the padding down the third base line after he allowed the game-tying hit. But when Gore struck out Soto for the third time in the game, he joined Hyun-Jin Ryu and Max Fried as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat.
In the sixth inning, the Nationals (30-47) strung together three straight singles to take control of the game. Joey Meneses hit the third up the middle to give Washington a 2-1 lead, and Stone Garrett followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-1. The Padres (37-41) loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning after Mason Thompson walked three hitters, but Joe La Sorsa, called up last week after Carl Edwards Jr.'s injury, struck out Gary Sánchez on a full count to escape the jam.
Washington used the missed opportunity to blow the game open. Derek Hill reached when Padres pitcher Tim Hill fielded a grounder and misfired to first base. After CJ Abrams was hit by a pitch, Lane Thomas knocked an RBI single up the middle to give Washington some insurance before Tim Hill made a second throwing error that allowed Luis García to reach and loaded the bases. Candelario and Meneses hit back-to-back two-run doubles, and the Nationals used the five-run fifth to grab a 8-1 lead. Meneses raised his batting average to .446 with runners in scoring position with his run-scoring hits.
The Nationals have struggled to give their starters run support lately. Sunday’s output tied their most 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 to take two games on the road.
“It feels great, especially coming off a bad little run there where we weren’t winning many games,” Meneses said. “To come in here and win two out of three and beat a good team on the other side gives us a little extra confidence.”
