WASHINGTON -- The last time MacKenzie Gore walked off the field, he had loaded the bases and was exiting with two outs in the fourth inning. 

Gore was determined to leave his shortest start of the season behind in Anaheim when he took the mound on Tuesday at Nationals Park against the Orioles.

The southpaw threw six innings and totaled 103 pitches in the Nationals’ 4-0 loss. He struck out seven batters while allowing three runs off three hits and four walks. 

“We finished strong, but I’ve got to clean it up a little bit,” Gore said.

Here's a look at three elements of Gore’s fourth start of the season. 

Strikeouts
With a season-high seven strikeouts, Gore has recorded six-plus strikeouts in each of his appearances. He leads the Nationals in that category with 25 on the season. 

“The fastball has been good,” said Gore. “I’ve got some offspeed. I even threw some good changeups tonight late. We’ve got four pitches right now, which is hard to hit when the guy’s got four pitches. So I’ve just got to continue to work and figure out how to get ahead of guys, and good things happen when I’m ahead of guys.” 

Among his strikeouts, Gore fanned Baltimore’s first two hitters, Austin Hays and Adley Rutschman, twice -- in the first inning to open the game and again in the fifth as he gained momentum later in his outing. Gore caught Rutschman, who entered the day batting .323, chasing on a pair of curveballs in his first at-bat. 

“Gore's got really good stuff,” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. “I was really impressed with him. I really like his arm. He's got a great, really good fastball and good offspeed stuff, and I can understand why he's hard to hit. He had good numbers coming in.”

Walks
Gore did not issue a free pass in the first two innings, but he opened the third and fourth frame with a leadoff walk. His four walks on the night brought his season total to 14, the fifth most in the Majors among starters.

“Sometimes he starts speeding up, and he’s got to slow himself down,” manager Dave Martinez said of a trend among Gore’s walks. “When he does that, you saw him come out the last two innings and he had a really good pace. He was working quick but yet under control. I think he needs to understand that that’s who he is.” 

In the third, Gore battled back from a 2-0 count against Gunnar Henderson to even it up at 2-2 with a pair of fastballs, but Henderson drew a seven-pitch walk to get on base. After James McCann singled in the next at-bat, Gore got ahead of Cedric Mullins with a 1-2 count before throwing three balls in a row to load the bases. Rutschman then drew an RBI walk on six pitches to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

The leadoff walk to Anthony Santander in the fourth came after Gore had a 1-2 count, but he missed location with his slider on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. 

“I think the walks, they’re kind of coming in bunches,” Gore said. “It could be speeding up, but I really think it’s ... I’ve got to figure out how to make an adjustment quicker. That’s what it comes down to. That’s what the good ones do, and I’ve just got to do a better job of that.” 

Finishing strong
Gore allowed all three runs in the third and fourth frames, but he concluded his evening with consecutive 1-2-3 innings. His last two at-bats of the game were strikeouts. 

“[He was] getting ahead and throwing the ball over the plate,” catcher Keibert Ruiz said of Gore’s late-game performance. “I think we got in trouble in the middle of the game because we walked a couple guys. Once he got to the sixth inning, he finished strong.”

Gore eclipsed 100 pitches for the first time this season, and he was five shy of tying his career high of 108 (June 4, 2022, vs. the Brewers as a member of the Padres). Gore noted that he wanted to build off Patrick Corbin throwing six innings on Sunday and Josiah Gray tossing five innings on Tuesday.

“He’s a perfectionist,” said Martinez. “We’ve got to get him out of that, if something goes bad, he falls into that category where, ‘Oh no.’ Now, hey, go get that next pitch, get that next hitter, whatever it’s going to take. Once he gets through a little situation, he comes back and he’s strong. He really is.”