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MacKenzie Gore Breaks Sacred Opening Day Record as Nationals Fall in Extras to the Fightin' Philadelphia Phillies by Noah Kravitz

         Yesterday was a day to remember if your name is MacKenzie Gore, or if you are a Nationals 2025 Season Ticket Holder, but not so much if your name resides in the 2025 Washington Nationals bullpen. Most Nationals fans would point out that the team is already in mid-season form after losing in extra innings on Opening-Day. Those fans, to an extent, aren’t wrong. Although, it would be a shame to say that the season is already over within one game. 
LHP MacKenzie Gore dominated the Phillies on opening day.



There are also most who didn’t believe Gore would make it past 4 or even 5 innings. The North Carolina native was absolutely dominant on the mound, feeling the energy around him. Striking out a total of 13 batters allowing no runs and just one hit. Gore also made history, breaking former Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer’s record of strikeouts on Opening Day. Max struck out 12 on the 2019 Opening Day against the Mets, while Gore was able to strike out 13. 


We’ve learned throughout the complexity of this rebuild process as a whole, that for the Nationals to be a competitive team they have to have consistent starting pitching. This is obviously only one game to reflect on. We’ve seen the dominant side of Mac, and definitely the weak side of Mac. But if he’s able to build off of this when the team needs it most, it can really pay off in the crucial games down the stretch. 


Not much offensive output to speak of, scoring 3 runs in 10 innings. Catcher Keibert Ruiz represented the Nats first run, and home run, pulling a fly ball into the Nationals bullpen. He also registered a single he hit two innings earlier. 


Yesterday was also the day of one of many Nationals debuts including infielders Lowe and DeJong. Those debuts were ones to forget as they went a combined 1-8 with 7 strikeouts and an eighth inning single from Lowe.


If you could take one thing out of this game, it would be that this team was able to keep themselves in the game and make it competitive. Not before the bullpen said no thanks, allowing all 7 runs the Phillies scored yesterday. On one hand, maybe you could’ve kept Gore in? Maybe the same result could’ve happened. 


Manager Davey Martinez took Gore out after 6 one-hit innings, putting in new reliever Lucas Sims. He gave up a home run to Bryce Harper who happens to know Nats Park very well. After that, Davey goes with the hard throwing southpaw Ferrer, against designated hitter Kyle Schwarber for the lefty-lefty matchup, and he goes deep. This would give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead, where the Nats would eventually rally back but not before losing in the 10th. Pitchers Colin Poche and Eduardo Salazar would relieve in extras. 


These are the beauties of Opening Week baseball; you are going to make mistakes. If one thing’s for sure, it’s that this team knows it needs to be better if they want to be in the conversation with the big dogs in the NL-East, and the entirety of the National League. 

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