Excellence is becoming the norm for Nationals ace MacKenzie Gore

When MacKenzie Gore takes the ball these days, the Washington Nationals faithful expects good things to happen

Despite the frustrating loss, MacKenzie Gore delivered yet another quality start where he showed off his dominant stuff. We have come to expect Gore to have lines like he did tonight, 6 innings, 2 runs, no walks and 6 strikeouts. This has become close to an average MacKenzie Gore stat line, which is very impressive.

He is blossoming into an ace before our very eyes because of his new found consistency. Gore still has the occasional stinker like he did against the O’s, but they are far less frequent. We have always seen high highs from Gore, now we are seeing less of the lows and his average starts are much better than they used to be. This comes from a more coherent plan, improved command and greater mental fortitude. The new and improved MacKenzie Gore is joining some pretty elite company.

New Weapon For Lefties:

That plan comes into especially against left handed hitters. Despite being a southpaw, same sided hitters have been an issue for Gore. This is because his curveball, arguably Gore’s best pitch is much more effective against righties. Gore has always cut down on his curveball usage against lefties.

With his best secondary pitch mostly off the table, lefties had a lot of success against Gore in 2024. They hit .282 against him, while striking out less and walking more than right handers. Gore knew that he needed to find something that could help him against same sided opponents.

He has done just that and it has made him a drastically different pitcher. Gore has found a brand new weapon, a slider. After barely using one last year, it is now his primary pitch to lefties. He is throwing it 45.6% of the time to lefties and getting great results. Left handers are hitting .140 against the pitch with 22 strikeouts and a 47.3% whiff rate. Despite being a new pitch, it is absolutely elite.

It is why left handed hitters are now just batting just .229 against him. His fastball has been quite ineffective to lefties, but the slider has been so good and so heavily used it does not matter much. Here he is dominating Juan Soto with sliders last night. Later in the game, Soto became the first lefty all year to homer off his slider, but hey that is why he gets the big bucks.

Pinpoint Command:

Another reason for Gore’s climb into ace status is his vastly improved control. He is walking just 6.4% of hitters this season compared to 8.9% last year and 9.8% in 2023. Gore walked zero batters for the fourth time this season in 14 starts. Last year he only managed that feat twice in 32 starts last year.

His walks per 9 are also way down. After walking 3.52 batters per nine innings last year, he is down to 2.43 this year. He is a pitcher who is coming into his own. Gore is becoming more confident in his stuff and his mechanics. He is finding the zone more regularly and attacking hitters. That brings me to my third point about Gore’s improvement. His mental game has gotten much stronger.

More Mature Pitcher:

Unlike the first two categories, there aren’t defined statistics for a pitchers mental game. However, it is easy to see when a pitcher has matured. We never saw the green version of Max Scherzer with the Nats, but there was a time in his career when his wild passion wasn’t channeled the right way. He found a way to make it into one of his greatest strengths.

Gore doesn’t have the same animalistic mound presence Max did, but he has found his swagger on the mound. I love his post strikeout routine when he takes his glove off and kind of bobs up and down. A lot of aces kind of have a signature like that. With Max it was when he was prowled around the mound.

When you watch Gore, you don’t see a pitcher that is nervous about what can happen. He is now just ready to dominate. When Stephen Strasburg was younger, he had a habit of melting down when someone cost him in the field. Gore had a similar habit, but like Strasburg, he found a way to mature enough to relax when mistakes happen. With this poor infield defense, it is an important lesson to learn.

Last night was an average MacKenzie Gore start. However, it was still a great outing where he should have gotten a win if the bullpen didn’t blow it. Despite his 3-5 record, MacKenzie Gore is an ace. Even if his teammates are letting him down, Gore still pushes forward and gives his team the best chance to win possible. That is the sign of a true ace.