MacKenzie Gore stared down Juan Soto, who glared back as he stood in the batter’s box. Gore 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.
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. 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.
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