Washington Nationals news & notes: MacKenzie Gore Ks 8 in seven strong; Nats beat Mariners, 6-1 in series opener…

GORE STRIKES OUT 8 IN 7 IP:

MacKenzie Gore gave up a leadoff home run on the second pitch he threw in last night’s game, a 97.1 MPH fastball J.P. Crawford hit 399 ft. to center field to start the series in the nation’s capital. It was the only run, and one of just four hits, which Gore allowed overall, going seven strong in the start, which ended up being a seven-inning, 98-pitch outing in which he struck out eight and walked just one batter.

Nationals’ batters provided plenty of support for their starter, with Luis García, Jr. hitting a three-run home run in the fourth, Keibert Ruiz hitting a two-run home run in the sixth, and finally Eddie Rosario homering in the eighth as Washington ran away with the first of three against Seattle in Washington, D.C.

Gore gave up a two-out single in the second, a two-out walk in the third, a leadoff single in the sixth, and another one in the seventh, but stranded all four runners to reach base after the homer, generating 17 swinging and 18 called strikes on the night, with eight whiffs and 10 called strikes on his four-seamer, which he threw 55% of the time, averaging 96.9 MPH on the pitch, and mixing in his curve (26%; 6 whiffs, 5 called strikes), changeup (10%, 2/2), and slider (9%; 1/1).

The Nationals’ southpaw talked after the latest turn in the rotation about moving on quickly after the leadoff home run.

“You never want to lead off a game with a homer, but just [focus on] the next guy,” Gore told reporters after earning his 3rd win (3-4, 3.04 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 2.87 BB/9, 10.46 K/9, 0.84 HR/9 in 53 ¹⁄₃ IP), as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato.

“What had happened had happened,” he said.

“After that [home run], he controlled the game really good,” catcher Keibert Ruiz said after guiding the lefty through his outing. “He executed the plan.”

“You hope that it is [a long outing]; you hope that things don’t blow up,” Davey Martinez said in his own postgame presser:

“But as he got to that fourth inning and I’m watching his pitch count, I’m watching what he’s doing, I thought then that he can go deep in this game, which would be great. And he did. Going seven innings is really good, especially for our bullpen. We’ve got a lot of games coming up, so we’re going to need our starting pitchers to go a little deeper in games.”

“He was attacking the strike zone,” Martinez said when asked what was working for his left-handed starter.

“He got early outs. He pitched really, really well. I mean, his fastball was electric. He threw breaking balls when he needed to, but he really worked ahead.”

Gore’s curve was particularly effective late in the outing, the manager said.

“He started getting through it a little bit better later in the game. That sometimes happens when he gets a little tired, that you’re able to focus and get the ball down a little bit better, but a lot of times the fastballs will tend to creep up, and the breaking balls will tend to go down a little bit. That last pitch he threw was phenomenal.”

The final pitch was a 3-2 curve to Jorge Polanco which got the Mariners’ infielder swinging for the eight strikeout of the night for the Nationals’ starter.

“After throwing two fastballs, throwing a curveball like that was pretty good.”