WASHINGTON — A chilly day, a spate of shadows and some dominant stuff made MacKenzie Gore unstoppable on Opening Day.
The Washington Nationals left-hander struck out a career-high 13 – and set a franchise record for Opening Day punchouts – to shut out the Philadelphia Phillies for six innings Thursday.
Gore had to be that good. Cy Young Award runner-up Zack Wheeler matched him zero for zero at Nationals Park until Keibert Ruiz capped a 12-pitch at-bat by golfing a home run to right field in the fifth inning.
Gifted that 1-0 lead, Gore finished his afternoon in style, striking out Brandon Marsh to finish the sixth, turning toward center field to pump his fist after his 93rd pitch.
It was a new-fashioned pitching duel: Gore and Wheeler allowed just one base runner between them through four innings, erased on a caught-stealing and double-play, respectively. Yet their determination to avoid bats spiked their pitch counts, even as Gore faced the minimum number of batters in his six innings.
At one point, he struck out five consecutive Phillies and 10 of 11, topping his previous career high of 11 strikeouts, achieved on two occasions.
It took just two batters to deprive Gore of the win, as Bryce Harper hit a first-pitch homer off Lucas Sims to tie the game, 1-1. Kyle Schwarber followed with another first-pitch homer, greeting lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer with a solo homer over the right field wall, giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead.
The Phillies went on to win, 7-3, in 10 innings.
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