Nationals Ace MacKenzie Gore Shows Self-Awareness After Difficult Performance

The Washington Nationals have had a difficult 2025 campaign through the first 99 games, posting a 39-60 record which lands them in last place among the National League East.

Even worse, they are on pace to have more losses than their last two seasons, which is saying something as both ended with a 71-91 record. If they keep up their current pace, they should end around 64-98, which would be pretty brutal given they are a developing team.

On the positive side of things, they have a young core to build around, with multiple talented pieces who can be long-term starters for the franchise.

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One of the most critical ones this year has been starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore, who has rapidly found his stride for the team and earned his first All-Star Game nod recently.

Unfortunately, despite an exceptional season, he has only been rewarded with a 4-9 record so far, despite producing a 2.7 bWAR in 20 starts.

He has been immensely impressive though, and has given the team a chance in many cases, with a 3.59 ERA, 1.269 WHIP, 140 strikeouts to 38 walks, 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings and a 111 ERA+.

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His most recent start against the San Diego Padres was a difficult one however, and he made it clear that he was aware of the difficult appearance.

In a recent article put together by Andrew Golden of The Washington Post (subscription required), a quote from Gore was transcribed following his troubling start, in which he said the following:

"I was just bad today," Gore said. "I just wasn’t very good. They put the ball in play and they got a lot of hits and they were able to hit two homers, but I just wasn’t very good."

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Interim manager Miguel Cairo also discussed it briefly, and had this to say about the performance:

“One pitch, it changed the whole first inning. He just fell behind, and they had good at-bats.”

For what it is worth, the Padres are an extremely difficult opponent for any pitcher, as they have been all season long.

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Additionally, every pitcher has bad starts once in a while; it is just a part of the game. Sometimes they come out without their best pitch working like they would prefer it to, and that sets them back against the other team.

The good news is, Gore has been thoroughly impressive throughout pretty much all of his other starts, with only one other instance of giving up more than four earned runs in an outing this year.

Hopefully, he will make a quick bounce-back appearance soon and gain his momentum right back.

For more Nationals news, head over to Nationals On SI.