Grant & Danny are home from West Palm Beach, but they brought some of the sunshine back with them…well, proverbially, at least, in the case of waiting to play their interview with MacKenzie Gore until they were back in DC.
And in that chat, G&D focused on what the Nats’ next possible ace wanted to focus on this offseason to get there.
“We spent the offseason figuring out why we were successful at times and then what happened when we were not, and now, working on some adjustments this spring, and we’ll see how it works,” Gore said. “Just seeing how we're using stuff, location of things. Not necessarily how good or bad the stuff was, it was more how we used it and when we used it. I don't know exactly how we're gonna use it, but we're messing around with that for these next four or five starts, and we'll be ready to roll.”
Gore has had a strong early spring, as he’s balancing the idea of tinkering with things versus putting on a strong performance – but again, it’s more about hoping the former breeds the latter.
“There's no need to get too excited about two spring training starts, either, but there is a thing that is the stuff good? That's important,” Gore said. “I feel good, but there's gonna be adjustments being made; we’re probably gonna do things in certain situations that we may not do, but it also might end up being something that's real and we use it. There's something to have success, because it means the stuff's where it needs to be, but there probably are times where we don't do exactly what we would do in a big game that means something.”
Getting better and ‘pitching how I’m capable of’ is Gore’s biggest goal, and as long as he does that, whatever happens, happns.
“You can control that by doing what you need to do to execute, and be as prepared as you can be physically and mentally. I just want to pitch what I'm capable of, and I think if I do that, we should have some fun,” Gore said.
Gore did some work with pitching gurus in North Carolina in the offseason to help with that, and he’s hopeful that he quickly gets to the point where he has all his weapons more often than not.
“There will be days where you got all your weapons, then there's also gonna be days where you might have two or three, but you want to end spring with all your weapons in a good place,” Gore said. “Then we go from there, and whatever happens on game day happens.”
Part of helping that is being more comfortable with his teammates, even still being part of that young emerging core himself.
“We have a good mix here; the young guys work hard and are watching and listening to these older guys that we got in here, and they appreciate being here,” Gore said. “I appreciate being around those guys; it's kind of a respect thing and at times, I think that's kind of lost today, but these young guys, they've done awesome, and we got a good group.”
That answer led Danny to recall his run-in with Max Scherzer on a day he was pitching, and how he likens Gore to having a little bit of that bulldog in him…and Gore appreciated that, but noted he’s not QUITE just like that.
“I'm kind of competitive, I don't like losing anything. I don't know if that's the southeastern North Carolina redneck coming out of me, but I’ve always had that,” Gore said. “Hours before a game, I’m not like locked in, I can’t focus that long, but once it gets pretty close to game time we're ready to roll, and once we get between those lines, whatever happens, happens once we get out there.”
He does, however, know how to forget about his latest start right away, because it’s always on to the next one.
“Next day, really; you have to go back and look at it, but I'm not a guy that really freaks out about anything, good or bad,” Gore said. “I think you need to figure out why things happen the way they did, but then once you do that, it's over. The sun comes up the next day, and you gotta get ready for the next one.”