Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats beat Cardinals, 10-8 in extras; MacKenzie Gore better, not good…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ win over the Cardinals last night in Busch Stadium…

GORE VS CARDS:

MacKenzie Gore stumbled into the All-Star break, and came out of it with a bullpen-killing, two-inning outing in his first start of the so-called second-half of the season.

“I have to be better,” Gore told reporters after throwing 67 pitches to 12 batters in the two innings he was on the mound (2 H, 4 BB, 3 ER) against Cincinnati’s Reds in Nationals Park.

“I understand what I’m doing wrong. I think we all do. But I just have to figure out a solution, because this is enough. I can’t keep doing this.”

Gore’s manager, Davey Martinez, told reporters before the series opener in St. Louis last night, he wanted to see their southpaw get back to what made him successful early this season.

“Just get ahead of hitters,” Martinez said, “… and try to finish hitters off. He gets ahead, and then next thing you know he’s 2-2, 3-2. I want him to really focus on just put-away pitches, get ahead, and try to put guys away early, try to keep that pitch count down and be more efficient.”

“It’s getting where I’m 2-0, 3-0, instead of 1-1 and 1-2, and it’s been ugly,” Gore said on July 20th. “I’m not getting hit, I’m just walking a lot of people.

“So we got to figure out how to clean that up, and we’re going to, but yeah, this one’s a frustrating one after these few before this, so…”

After throwing 48 pitches to seven batters in the first against the Reds, Gore threw just 15 to Cardinals’ hitters in the first last night, working around a one-out single and two-out walk.

He took the mound in the second with a 2-0 lead, courtesy of a one-out, two-run double by Luis García, Jr., and retired the Cards in order in a nine-pitch frame, but he fell behind right away in the third, 3-0, and walked to leadoff batter, Michael Siani, then gave up a home run on a 2-0 fastball up in the zone to Masyn Winn, 2-2.

Back-to-back singles by Willson Contreras and Alec Burleson followed (on a 3-1 fastball to Contreras) and a 2-2 sweeper to Burleson, and Nolan Arenado followed with a homer on a fastball up in the zone, not far enough in, on a 1-0 pitch, 5-2 St. Louis.

Three straight hits (on a 1-2 pitch, first-pitch fastball, and 1-0 curve) in the fourth made it 6-3 game in the Cardinals’ favor, after García, Jr.’s RBI single in the top of the inning had made it a two-run game.

Gore worked around a double in a scoreless fifth, but was up to 90 pitches and done for the day at that point, having given up nine hits, two walks, and six earned runs.

“Look,” Gore told reporters after the game, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, “… today wasn’t good, but it was better.

“I’m just trying to figure this whole thing out, stop the bleeding here. And we’re going to.”

“He was 2-0 to almost every hitter,” Martinez said after the club rallied to tie things, then won it in extras.

“[He was] 1-0 to Arenado. When he’s ahead, he’s really, really good and really efficient. I talked to him a little bit about how we’ve got to keep working ahead.

“But he goes out in the fifth and keeps it right there, which was awesome.”

Trailing 6-3 after fourth, the Nationals scored two in the top of the fifth, on an RBI double by Juan Yepez and an RBI groundout by James Wood, and Yepez scored CJ Abrams on a sac fly to center in the top of the seventh, 6-6. It went to extras, and in the 10th, Jacob Young hit a base-clearing triple to put the visitors, who were no-hit on Thursday, up 9-6, on the club’s 10th hit of the game. Young scored on an RBI single by Abrams before the inning was over, 10-6, and 10-8 final.