In the end, Saturday afternoon and the Washington Nationals’ 6-3 win belonged to MacKenzie Gore.
“Yeah, it was big,” Gore said. “Especially the way we were throwing the ball the middle of the year, it feels good to finish strong, and we were able to get out of it, get some momentum going in next year.”
The win helped the Nationals (71-90) match last year’s win total with one game left. Philadelphia’s loss dropped it to 94-67 and ensured the Los Angeles Dodgers will have the top seed in the National League playoffs.
Washington’s victory didn’t come without dramatics. The matchup featured a two-run homer from the Nationals’ future (James Wood for a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning) and their past (Turner to tie the score at 2 in the eighth). It included a testy exchange between Harper and Jose A. Ferrer to end the top of the eighth, which cleared the benches and bullpens, though nothing much came of it.
It took place before a sellout crowd of 38,135, split between Philadelphia and Washington fans. It had a go-ahead run that belonged to Wood, who tripled to open the eighth and scored on Keibert Ruiz’s single. Joey Gallo hit a three-run homer to add needed insurance.
“We’re still fighting for a lot,” Wood said. “A good majority of us are rookies. Not many of us are really established here yet, so I think every day means a lot to us.”
As his season wraps, Gore remains complicated. He is still a perfectionist, both to a fault and to his benefit. He has the best stuff in the Nationals’ rotation and one of the nastiest fastballs in the game. He is the pitcher for whom Manager Dave Martinez is willing to bend the rules of his young arm management plan — and the pitcher the Nationals confidently sent out for the sixth to face Schwarber, Turner and Harper.
He saved his best for last, finishing Harper with a 3-2 sweeper that found the outside corner. For the first time, the 25-year-old finished a season with an ERA under 4.00 — 3.90, to be exact.
“He did it in a way where he left the mark,” Martinez said. “Like: ‘Hey, you know, I got this. This is who I am. Here we go.’”
Gore’s season can be divided into three segments: April and May, when he had a 2.91 ERA, his best stuff and one of the best strikeout rates in baseball; June and July, when his velocity dropped, his frustration boiled over and he pitched to a 6.36 ERA; and August and September, when his velocity didn’t return to its peak but he became less predictable and more aggressive on his way to a 2.60 ERA.
Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler, a potential Cy Young Award finalist, nearly matched Gore on Saturday. He finished with 11 strikeouts in 6⅓ innings; the Nationals put just 10 balls in play against him. When Wood stepped to the plate in the sixth, with Luis García Jr. on first, the Nationals had yet to move a runner farther than 90 feet.
After striking out in his first two at-bats, Wood was looking for a fastball and got a sinker down the middle. He sent it 385 feet to left-center.
The Nationals left the bases loaded in the seventh — and that came back to bite them in the eighth, when Turner unloaded on Ferrer’s 0-2 change-up for a two-run homer into the visiting bullpen. Ferrer struck out Harper to end the inning and then stared at Harper — who took exception to it, as well as to Ruiz’s framing during the at-bat.
Ruiz ultimately delivered the go-ahead hit — and then did not hold back in his postgame comments.
“He’s a very competitive guy,” Ruiz said of Harper. “He showed the emotions right there. He tried to talk to me like: ‘Hey, throw the ball back. You’ve been trying to [frame] the ball.’ I didn’t see that good. I mean, he got to do his job. I got to do my job. He don’t have to talk to me like that. I just feel like I don’t care who you are. I know he’s a really good player. He can be a Hall of Famer. But if you don’t respect me, I won’t respect you.”
