Jun 25, 2025; San Diego, California, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore (1) delivers during the first inning against the against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
All-Star left-hander MacKenzie Gore faces his former team for the second time in less than four weeks when the Washington Nationals host the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon.
The Nationals acquired Gore as part of the impressive haul from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade at the deadline in 2022. He is 1-2 with a 4.35 ERA in 20 2/3 innings over four career starts against San Diego.
Gore (4-8, 3.02 ERA this season) will again be pitted against Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta (9-2, 2.88), who was the winning pitcher in San Diego’s 1-0 home victory on June 25.
Gore allowed just one run and five hits over six innings while taking the loss.
Now he’ll take aim at helping the Nationals win the three-game set. The Padres won 7-2 on Friday and Washington bounced back with a 4-2 victory on Saturday.
Gore, 26, was the third overall pick by San Diego in the 2017 MLB Draft, and he was often ranked as the franchise’s top prospect over the next five years.
He reached the majors in April 2022 and made 16 appearances (13 starts) for the Padres before being sent to Washington along with shortstop CJ Abrams and outfielder James Wood among others for Soto and veteran hitter Josh Bell.
Gore, Abrams (2024) and Wood (2025) have all played in the All-Star Game for the Nationals. Gore retired all three batters he faced in Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
He beat the St. Louis Cardinals in his last start before the break by allowing one run and five hits over six innings.
Manny Machado (2-for-7) and Xander Bogaerts (2-for-5) have each homered off Gore, while Jackson Merrill (0-for-6) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (1-for-7) have struggled.
Both teams had just six hits during the Nationals’ win on Saturday.
Nathaniel Lowe smacked his 15th homer of the season for Washington, which also received three innings of one-hit shutout ball from its bullpen.
The best sight for the Nationals was seeing right-hander Kyle Finnegan fanning two batters during a perfect ninth inning for his 19th save of the season, but first since June 6.
Finnegan had allowed eight runs, seven hits and three walks while recording a total of two outs over his previous two appearances. That includes being roughed up for five runs in the ninth inning on Friday while taking the loss.
“Any pitcher will tell you: After a bad one, you don’t want to stew on it for too long. You want to get back out there and put it behind you,” Finnegan told reporters after Saturday’s game. “So I was excited for the opportunity to do that. Happy that they had the faith in me to go back out there and get the last three outs.”
San Diego’s Luis Arraez and Jose Iglesias each had two hits on Saturday while Machado, Gavin Sheets, Bogaerts and Merrill all posted 0-for-4s.
“We were on the brink a lot,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said afterward. “We just couldn’t get the big hit.”
Pivetta, 32, would match his career high for victories if he gets the win on Sunday. He won 10 games for the Boston Red Sox in both 2022 and 2023.
He also had been on a roll, beginning with the win over the Nationals. He gave up three hits and struck out 10 in seven innings in that affair.
Over his past four starts, he’s 2-0 with a 0.36 ERA with 31 strikeouts.
The stellar outing against Washington was definitely different from what typically has transpired for Pivetta. Even after that performance, he is 2-7 with an 8.10 ERA in 14 career appearances (11 starts) against the Nationals.
Lowe is 2-for-9 against Pivetta.
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