Gore has it all working in one-hit, 9-K gem

MIAMI -- One of the few downsides of baseball is that a pitcher can deliver a stunning start but still get tabbed with the loss.

That almost happened to MacKenzie Gore on Wednesday night in Miami, after he allowed one run over six innings, carrying a perfect game into the sixth before giving up a walk and a hit -- the lone blemishes on his night.

But Gore was bailed out by none other than rookie James Wood, who capped the Nationals’ three-run eighth inning with an RBI double. Wood finished the night 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

Gore, who struck out nine on 93 pitches (62 strikes), earned the no-decision thanks to the young outfielder, and the two teams at the bottom of the National League East see-sawed the score back and forth before Miami shortstop Xavier Edwards landed the deciding blow, a walk-off single in the 10th inning that handed the Nationals a 4-3 loss -- their first vs. the Marlins this season. Washington’s attention, though, was all on its starter.

“For me, the story was MacKenzie. Man, that was really good,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He pitched really well. Gave us six strong innings. [His] changeup was really good, but his fastball was electric, too. He pitched well, pitched really well. …

“It's awesome, man. We want him to finish up strong going into the winter break and build some confidence with him, right? But he's -- like I said, he's utilizing all his pitches really well right now, and he's doing really well. He's worked really hard.”

Perhaps no one has understood the “Dog Days” of summer better than Gore this season.

After going a career-high-tying seven innings vs. the Marlins on June 14, Gore’s season took a turn. He went 11 outings before posting another quality start, with the streak finally ending on Aug. 23 when he allowed one run over six innings vs. Atlanta. Over that stretch, Gore had a 1-6 record and a 6.75 ERA.

Now, Gore has delivered quality in his past three starts, outdueling the Braves, the Yankees and the Marlins. In those three outings he has a 2.00 ERA (four runs over 18 innings) with a combined 19 strikeouts.

In Miami, Gore retired 16 consecutive batters to start his outing before issuing a walk to Griffin Conine. Nick Fortes got the Marlins’ first hit in the next at-bat, capitalizing on an 83.4 mph curveball and rocketing it into left field for an RBI double. It was the only hit -- and the only run -- that Gore allowed.

“I thought we were getting no-hit there for a minute the way Gore was throwing the baseball,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “So to come out of that with the win is pretty awesome. Gore had all his stuff working: fastball at the top, really good secondary, and we had a lot of weak contact.”

After a quick mound visit, Gore escaped the inning with a pair of strikeouts, his eighth and ninth of the night.

Part of Gore’s success of late has stemmed from a return to using his changeup, which looks nearly identical to his fastball out of his hand. In July, Gore was using his changeup just 5.9 percent of the time -- in August, that was up to 10.5 percent. He used it for 17 percent of his pitches vs. the Marlins on Wednesday.

The alteration in pitch usage, plus Gore’s realization that, for him, being aggressive leads to executing, has proved key in his return to form.

“That's kind of who I am, so understanding that, I had to figure that out,” Gore said. “I was trying to execute there for a while, and it wasn't very pretty. And understanding that when I'm aggressive, I execute better. And that's kind of what we figured out in the last few outings. And just kind of trying to build off of it.”

Gore was aggressive right out of the gate on Wednesday. He induced 17 swings-and-misses, deftly maneuvering around the Marlins’ bats -- something he’s done increasingly well this year: Gore has cut his barrel rate in half this season, from 12.1 percent last year to 6.6 percent, and has gotten his hard-hit rate down six percentage points, too -- from 43.7 percent to 37.7 percent.

“From left field, it looks pretty nasty,” Wood said. “And I've faced him a couple times. I mean, it's not a fun at-bat. It’s just fun just watching him. I mean, he looked great out there. … Just wish we could have got a couple runs on there and walked out of here with the win.”

“I think he was just on, really,” said Edwards. “Honestly, he was on all night. Put a few good swings towards the end of his outing. But yeah, good stuff -- really good stuff.”