Gore sustains momentum for Nats' surging arms

NEW YORK -- Add left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the list of Nationals starting pitchers to give the Mets trouble in this series. First, it was Josiah Gray, who blanked New York for six innings on Wednesday. Gore followed Gray up with his best outing of the season, and helped Washington defeat New York, 4-1.

Gore pitched six innings, allowed one run on four hits and tied a career high by striking out 10 batters. It marked the third time in his career he had 10 strikeouts in a game.

Gore now has 35 strikeouts during his first five games with Washington, the second most in Nationals franchise history behind Patrick Corbin and Max Scherzer, who each had 39.

New York’s problems with Gore started in the first inning. The lefty established his fastball from the first pitch, keeping an average velocity of 95.2 mph over his six innings. He started the game by retiring six of the first seven batters he faced, and struck out the side in the second inning.

“When he can pound the strike zone and use his fastball to throw strike one, he is going to be what he was today -- very effective,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He has a lot of movement on his ball. But I’m also proud of him just going out there and trusting his fastball, keeping the ball down and using it. Every now and then, he threw his slider, but he was good.”

Gore’s only blemish occurred in the third inning. Eduardo Escobar led off with a triple after a line drive skipped past right fielder Lane Thomas. Gore nearly tightroped out of trouble, causing Tomás Nido to ground out and striking out Brandon Nimmo for the second time in the game. However, Starling Marte singled to left field to drive in Escobar on a changeup that caught too much of the plate.

“I [was able] to get ahead [of] guys. A big win for us,” Gore said. “The fastball was good tonight. [I] was throwing pretty hard. I was in the zone with everything. It was good.”

After the Marte single, Gore held New York scoreless for the next 3 1/3 innings, striking out five more batters.

"We knew [the Nationals] were pitching as well as anybody in the league coming in, and we're seeing that,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “You can see why MacKenzie Gore was a guy they wanted for a guy like [Juan] Soto [in a trade]. We knew he was going to be a challenge."

Gore credits much of his success on Wednesday to his relationship with catcher Keibert Ruiz -- he only shook his batterymate off once all night.

“He has been great all year. He has been awesome,” Gore said about Ruiz. “We communicate between innings. That’s all that comes down to. If you communicate with each other, we are going to be on the same page.”

The Nationals gave Gore enough run support to win his third game of the season. They drained Mets right-hander Kodai Senga’s pitch count, making him throw 94 pitches during his five innings on the mound. Washington took advantage of the situation in the second inning, when Thomas and CJ Abrams drove in runs with consecutive singles.

Even more impressive is that the Nationals are showing patience in the batter’s box the last two games, walking 13 times and scoring nine runs.

“We have been working really hard on getting these guys to understand what balls they really hit well, getting the ball in the strike zone,” Martinez said. “But the key was to be patient and get Senga in the zone. When we did that, we were able to get some key hits. That’s what we have to continue to do. We have to be patient, take our walks and put the ball in play.”

The Nationals have won four out of their last five games to improve their record to 9-14. For Martinez, the team’s improvements are occurring in the margins, adding up to higher quality ball.

“We are competing every day,” Martinez said. “We are making less and less mistakes. We are playing hard, running the bases well and playing good defense.

“It all starts with our starting pitching. If they can keep us in the game, give us five or six innings, we have a chance to do some things. I’m proud of the way the guys are going out there and playing. So far, it has been a good road trip. So let’s try to finish it off tomorrow.”