Gore's frustrating 38-pitch 3rd inning a turning point in Bronx

NEW YORK -- Before Tuesday night’s game against the Yankees, Nationals manager Miguel Cairo called left-hander MacKenzie Gore an ace.

That may have been true during the first half of the season. In fact, Gore was an All-Star selection for having a respectable 3.02 ERA and striking out 138 batters in 110 1/3 innings.

It has been a different story after the break. Gore had a 7.88 ERA (28 earned runs in 32 innings) in seven previous starts before facing the Yankees. It hasn’t helped that his four-seamer has been hit hard. Opponents were 76-for 272 [.313] with 11 home runs for the entire season.

During Tuesday’s outing, Gore was OK, but one bad inning proved costly in a 5-1 loss at Yankee Stadium.

Gore was breezing through the first two innings, throwing 31 pitches without allowing a run and was staked to a 1-0 lead. But he needed 38 pitches to get out of the third inning. What made the inning so weird was that it took nine pitches to strike out the first two hitters -- Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. But it was a struggle after that.

After allowing a double to Paul Goldschmidt, Gore walked the next two hitters -- Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger -- to load the bases. Giancarlo Stanton then cleared the bases with a double to left field to give New York a 3-1 lead. It wasn’t the fastball that Stanton clocked; it was a curveball that took the punishment.

The inning finally ended with Trent Grisham grounding out.

“He missed a few pitches and the Yankees had good at-bats,” Cairo said. “That was the second time around when they saw him. They made adjustments to him, but he kept us in the game. ... It goes like that sometimes.”

Gore lasted two more innings without further damage, but it was the third inning that derailed him. He ended up throwing 99 pitches overall.

“There were four hitters [to get out in the third] and it was frustrating. Those four guys got on and did some damage. That’s how the game went,” Gore said. “We did a lot of good things other than that [third inning], which decided the game.”

The Nationals had a chance to score more than just the one run, which came in the top of the third on an RBI single by CJ Abrams. In fact, they went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The Nats’ position players have been told to make the opposing pitchers throw strikes, but the hitters were doing a lot of chasing out of the strike zone. Washington struck out 12 times.

“We didn’t capitalize on those scoring chances,” Cairo said. “[When you face a team] like the Yankees, you have to score whenever you get a chance. We have to come back tomorrow and [try] again.”

Washington’s best chance to at least tie the score at 3 came in the sixth.

The Nats had the bases loaded with two outs. Yankees right-hander Fernando Cruz was taken out of the game in favor of left-hander Tim Hill, who was able to get James Wood to ground out to end the threat.

“We swung the bats. The timely hits were not there,” Abrams said. “We had some chances to score more runs and we didn’t. [The key to scoring more runs] is being aggressive on pitches in the zone -- things that you can do the job with and put a good swing on it.”