With one out in the second inning of Tuesday night's game, a fly ball off the bat of St. Louis' Jordan Walker appeared to be catchable, but fell in front of Nationals center fielder Victor Robles for a base hit. The next batter, Dylan Carlson would hit a two-run homer to put the Cardinals ahead.
In the dugout after the half inning, the Nats' starting pitcher, MacKenzie Gore, and Robles would have a brief exchange of words before a few players moved in to make sure nothing escalated as they were speaking. Nationals GM Mike Rizzo gave his thoughts on the incident Wednesday during his weekly appearance with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
When asked the incident was something he would get involved with, Rizzo told the Junks that would be the "territory" of manager Davey Martinez who "handles that well, that's one of the things he does best, he handles that clubhouse and players run through walls for him. So he's got the rapport with them. If I'm involved with something down in the clubhouse nothing good, something's up. If I'm down there talking to players and that type of thing, that's not a good thing.
"Davey handles it great, he handled this situation great and the two players handled it great. I loved the passion. I loved that they're not satisfied with the ball dropping, the pitcher's not satisfied with the ball dropping in and says something to the outfielder and the outfielder says something back to him, again, it's a learning moment. A learning moment for Victor, he can't drift after the ball and you have to know where the wind is playing and be in position where we want you to be and catch the ball.
"And Mac has to re-focus after that bad play, we have to re-focus and you can't give up that home run right after. Learning moments. These are learning experiences and they'll be btter for it."
The Nats would go on to lose 9-3 to St. Louis for their 13th loss in 15 games. On Gore's performance Rizzo said the young left-hander was "struggling with certain pitch locations" but he "loved the fact that he's pounding the strike zone, 67 percent strikes were thrown... eight punch outs in six innings against a lineup that's pretty darn good, the stuff was solid."
Gore's final line: six innings, nine hits, five runs (all earned) with two walks and eight strikeouts with two home runs surrendered on 98 pitches (66 strikes). His ERA now stands at 4.02 for the 2023 season.
"Again, it was a learning moment, a learning experience. You lose focus for a minute and you make a bad pitch and Carlson made him pay twice and that was kind of the... his night was kinda dictated by those two at-bats. Lotta positives I brought out of it.
"His stuff is elite and he's striking guys out at a good rate and most importantly he only walked two guys and that has been a point of emphasis for him that he has to bring down his walks and pound the strike zone more and I think you saw a step forward there."
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