2 weeks Ago
Entering his third full season as a Major Leaguer, Washington Nationals emerging starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore was facing increased expectations. He performed like an ace down the stretch of the 2024 campaign, firing 28.2 incredible innings over the final month of the year.
35 strikeouts were recorded to go along with an impressive 1.26 ERA. Out of the gate in the 2025 season, he has had a few performances mirroring that level of success.
Where he has taken his game to another level is with his strikeouts, blowing away hitters with regularity. On Opening Day against the Philadelphia Phillies , he had a historic performance with 13 strikeouts over six shutout innings. He has continued that impressive strikeout rate thus far in 2025, recording 32 over his first four starts and 23 innings.
His 12.5 K/9 was the highest in the National League entering the weekend and that number is only going to increase. Gore took the mound at notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field on Saturday afternoon, facing off with the Colorado Rockies .
It didn’t faze him at all, as he fired another strong start, matching some very impressive history at the ballpark. The Rockies found very little success against the Nationals' ace as he surrendered only four hits and two walks in six innings. Two runs were scored against him, coming off the bat of Mickey Moniak, who hit his third home run of the campaign.
His most impressive stat, again, was his strikeout numbers. Gore matched his career high from Opening Day with another 13-strikeout performance, joining a star-studded list of pitchers to reach that number in Coors Field history. As shared by Nationals Communications on X, he is only the sixth visiting pitcher in the history of Coors Field to strike out at least 13 Colorado players, and the first to do it since Jacob deGrom with the New York Mets on April 17, 2021 when he recorded 14.
Randy Johnson, with the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 13, 2001, was the only other visiting pitcher to reach 14 strikeouts. The other players to reach 13 were Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos on July 29, 1997, Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers on May 13, 2018, and Oliver Perez with the San Diego Padres on July 7, 2002. Accomplishing anything that two Hall of Famers and a third future Cooperstown inductee has done is an impressive feat.
The Nationals have to love the leap Gore has taken with his put-away stuff, which will help him take his game to another level as a front end starter. Recommended Articles.
