Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose to Phillies in extras, 4-3; drop 4th in a row overall…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ extra innings loss to the Phillies in CBP…

GORE VS THE PHILLIES:

MacKenzie Gore told reporters after his six-inning, nine-strikeout, 111-pitch effort in Fenway Park there were some things he needed to improve, but overall, he said, he was happy with the outing.

“We just got to clean up a few things here and there,” the 25-year-old lefty said.

“There were some hits I gave up with two strikes, just were not good execution, and just some things that we could do a little better.”

Asked to elaborate on what those things were, he went into a little more detail.

“Just some execution with two strikes,” Gore reiterated, “… understanding the hitter, and what they do well, and where the ball needs to be. … We just got to keep getting better.”

His manager talked before start No. 9 on the year for the Nationals’ southpaw about what’s allowed him to keep opposing teams in check and limit the damage this year, avoiding the big, blow-up innings, with three earned runs or fewer in each of his first eight starts.

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

“For me it’s more about his staying in the moment, not trying to get too ahead of himself,” Davey Martinez told reporters. “Understanding that, hey, he needs to get to the next pitch, not worry about the outcome. And he’s done really well with that. So he’s giving himself a chance to get out of big jams by just understanding you focus on that one pitch. And he’s done well. Then again too, he’s really trying to attack the strike zone early, you know, and now we’re talking a lot to him about finishing hitters off in 3-4 pitches or less, so when he does that he can stay in the game a little bit longer.”

“The other day he struggled a little bit earlier, we got six innings out of him, only because the last couple innings he was very efficient,” Martinez continued. “So we got to get him to understand that he can do that. His stuff is so good that he can do that. Like I said again, this is a tough [Phillies’] lineup, he’s got to navigate through it.

“But he’s got to get early strikes, and hopefully he gets early swings and outs.”

Gore walked the first batter he faced in the second of three for the Nationals this weekend in Citizens Bank Park, but stranded Kyle Schwarber after putting him on, and retired eight straight batters to get through 2 ²⁄₃ hitless. He walked Schwarber again in the third, which snapped the streak of hitters set down, but stranded him again.

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

Back-to-back singles in the Philly fourth ended Gore’s nascent no-hit bid, and Bryce Harper, who hit the first of the two singles, stole third without a throw and scored on a Bryson Stott double play grounder in the next at-bat, tying things up at 1-1 after Joey Meneses hit an RBI single in the first for an early lead.

Gore limited the Phillies to the one run in the fourth, struck out two in a 1-2-3 fifth, after the Nationals went up 2-1 on CJ Abrams’ RBI single in the top of the inning, then worked around another walk to Schwarber for a scoreless sixth, only to give up a game-tying home run off of Bryson Stott’s bat with one out in the seventh, on the starter’s 93rd and final pitch of the game.

“He was really good,” Martinez said following a 4-3 loss to the Phillies in extra innings.

“He got up to that 90-pitch mark, and he gave us everything he had, I mean, but if he stays right there, he’s going to win a lot of games. He’s going to win a lot of games.

“That was outstanding.”

“His last two outings, and even the outing before that in Boston, he understood what he can do when he’s efficient. Today he was pretty efficient. Those guys can hit, and for him to do what he did today was fun to watch. It really was. He’ll come back out in five days and do it again, but he’s pitching really well.”

THE REST OF THE GAME:

It was still tied at 2-2 after eight, but the Nationals rallied to take the lead, with Riley Adams singling with one out. Nasim Nuñez took over as a pinch runner at second following a HBP on Joey Gallo, then Eddie Rosario hit a grounder to short, and hustled down to the line, just as Gallo went in hard at second, causing Phillies’ shortstop Bryson Stott to take a few extra steps so his throw to first was late. Rosario beat it out to keep the inning alive, then Nuñez scored on a two-out RBI single by Jesse Winker, 3-2.

Davey Martinez on Rosario’s hustle: “[Rosario] beating out that double play. That was outstanding. He was flying. We scored a big run because of that, so I love the effort.”

Kyle Finnegan came on with a one-run lead in the bottom of the inning, and got two outs, and two strikes on Kody Clemens, but the reliever, who had not allowed a run (earned or otherwise) since April 12th, (with just two hits allowed in 12 IP in that stretch), gave up his first run in months on a 1-0 fastball outside Clemens hits 413 ft. to center to tie it back up.

Martinez on Finnegan’s blown save: “You can’t really fault him. We had a chance to put the game away early, we didn’t do it, but we get a chance to put our closer in there, and got one pitch away from closing it out, and it just didn’t happen tonight. But he’s been outstanding. He really has. The games we won, he’s been a big part of that, and it just wasn’t his day today.”

In the bottom of the 10th, with the score still 3-3, to put two on (along with the free runner), and got an out on a fly to center by J.T. Realmuto, but the free runner took third on the out, then scored on a sac fly off Finnegan by Bryce Harper, 4-3 Phillies.

Davey Martinez on if any thought was given to walking Harper too?: “[Alec Bohm, due up after Harper] has been really good. He’s got 37-38 RBIs, I think, so once we had two strikes on Harper, if we would have fell behind 2-0, 3-0, then things might have been different. But he had two strikes on him. He didn’t get the splitter down where he wanted to, you got to put the barrel on the ball, so like I said, as good as [Finnegan] has been, I’m not going to fault him for today, he’s been outstanding.”

“We battled,” Martinez said, summing up the loss. “We battled a team that’s really good. We were right there, we just couldn’t finish it.”