Game 134: Yanks (Rodon) @ Nationals (Gore) 6:45 EST

Yankees' lineup vs. Herz: he hasn't faced them and none of them have faced him. Again.



1. Torres (2B)

2. Soto (RF)

3. Judge (CF)

4. Stanton (DH)

5. Wells (C)

6. Volpe (SS)

7. Chisholm (3B)

8. Verdugo (LF)

9. LeMahieu (1B)



On the bench:



==============



Nationals' lineup vs. Rodon: Only 2 players on the Nationals' roster have ever faced Cole, maybe one will be in the lineup, so here it is:



1. Abrams (SS) is 0-4 with 1 K

2. Crews (RF) has never faced Rodon

3. Wood (LF) hasn't either

4. Chaparro (1B) hasn't as well

5. Ruiz (C) is 1-3 with 1 GIDP

6. Yepez (DH) is 1-1 with 1 BB

7. Tena (3B) has never faced Rodon

8. Garcia (2B) hasn't either

9. Young (CF) hasn't faced him as well



On the bench: Gallo is 1-5 with a solo HR with 1 K; Vargas is 0-2.


Side note: Obviously, those lineups are lineups I'm guessing on, but with the Yankees, it doesn't matter, none of them have faced Herz before.

With the Nationals I'm guessing which ones will be playing and in what order they'll be batting. You can correct them or leave them as they are with a caveat.

In the rubber game, the Nationals start former big-time prospect lefty MacKenzie Gore. Taken by the Padres with the 3rd pick of the entire 2017 June Amateur Draft, after signing, they sent him to rookie-ball where he was dominant for 21 innings in 7 starts. He opened 2018 at low-A, started one game, then went on the IL for a month. He was so-so in 15 more starts at that level that season. In 2020, the Padres put him at high-A and he was overpowering in 15 starts: 7-1 with a 1.02 ERA and 110 K's in 79 1/3 innings. They promoted him to AA, and he made two great starts and two bad ones. After the 4th start, he was hurt again, out for 3 weeks and came back to make one final brief start before the season. While he was top 20 in the pre-season top 100 prospect lists after 2018 and 2019, his performance at high-A elevated him into the top 5-6 propects on the list for 2020. As with all other prospects, he was in developmental camp during the 2020 COVID season. Before 2021, the addition of a few highly-rated draftees dropped Gore into the 10-11 range of the top 100 prospects. In 2021, the Padres jumped him over AA and had him start the season at AAA, where he made 6 unproductive starts before being shut down with blister and "mechanical" issures. He missed two months, did rehab work at rookie-ball (3 starts) and high-A (1 start) before closing out his season with 2 starts at AA. This poor/injured performance saw him drop out of the 100 lists with the exception of MLB Pipeline which still had him in there at #86.



The Padres had him open 2022 in AAA, and after one outstanding start, they called him to the majors. For the first 9 starts, he was brilliant, 4-1 with 1.50 ERA, 57 K's and just 34 hits in 48 innings. Then things fell apart in a hurry: 0-3 in his next 5 starts with an ERA over 10.00. The Padres took him out of rotation and moved him to the pen, where he pitched poorly in two more games. Then the Padres put him on the IL with elbow inflammation. At the trade deadline, the Padres wanted to be the winner of the Juan Soto sweepstakes so they sent a once-in-a-lifetime package of talent to the Nats for him and Josh Bell: Gore, C.J. Abrams, James Wood, Luke Voit, OF prospect Robert Hassell III, and P prospect Jarlin Susana. Trading Soto away completed the demolition of the champions of 3 years before, but the package they got back will be the talent base of the next competitve Nats team. After nearly two months on the IL, the Nats sent him to AAA to make 4 short and only modestly effective starts.



The Nats had him opening in their rotation in 2023 and again, he pitched solidly for two months, 3-3 in 11 starts with a 3.57 ERA. Again, he slid downhill as the season went along, though not as badly as the year before. He was 7-10 with a 4.28 ERA when he went on the bereavement list in late August. He came back to make one last start before being shut down for the rest of the season recurring finger blisters. Once again, he opened 2024 in the Nats' rotation. Once again, he pitched very well the first two months: 4-4 with a 2.91 ERA in 11 starts. Once again, he's slid downhill, 3-7 with a 5.79 ERA since the beginning of June. On the season, Gore is 7-11 with a 4.51 ERA. In 26 starts, he's pitched 131 2/3 innings, allowing 152 hits, 81 runs, 66 earned, 12 HR, and 54 BB with 140 K's. His WHIP on the season is a lousy 1.565.



This is Gore's 2nd start against the Yanks. His only other start against them was in late August last year at the Stadium, when he might already have been suffering from blister problems, and it was a bad one: 4 innings, 4 hits, 6 runs, 2 earned, 2 HR, and a BB with 4 K's. The Yanks added three more against the Nats' pen, and Luis Severino had his next-to-last win as a Yankee, 9-1. the usual reminder: it's just one game, but Gore's ERA vs. the Yanks is 4.50, and his WHIP is 1.25, and the Yankee team quadruple slash line against him is .211/.250/.526/.776.



Repertoire: Gore is a 5-pitch lefty: 4-seamer, curve, slider, change and an occasional sweeper. The 4-seam gets more rise but less run than average. The curve is pretty much 12-6, average drop and almost no break in on righties. The slider has below average drop and way below average break. The change is below average in both planes, down AND away from righties. One oddity, or maybe not so odd: of 221 changeups Gore has thrown this season, none have been to left-handed hitters. He doesn't throw enough sweeper (1-2 per start) to get an accurate fix on its movment. In run values, the FB and curve are small minuses, the change is a decent-sized minus, but the slider is a solid plus. His FB velocity is near elite, especially for a lefty, and the spin is above average. The curve spin is below average, and his extension is top 10% in MLB. His barrel rate is below average, and the hard hit rate is average. His line drive rate is very high, the ground ball rate and popup rates are low, and the flyball rate is more or less average. His swinging strike rate is solid, but the called strike rate is quite low, and the CSW is low because of that. The luck factors are working against him, on balance. His BABIP is way high, .367, and his strand rate is very low, 67%, but the HR/FB rate is very low as well, just 8.8%. Because of this, his ERA simulators think the ERA should about a half-run lower than his ERA of 4.51. The current pitch mix this season: 4-seamer averaging 96 about 55% of the time, curve 83 about 19% of the time, slider 91 about 15% of the time, change 86 about 9% of the time, and sweeper 86 about 1-2 times a game.





Playing the Name Game:



Gore is the only player with first name MacKenzie in MLB history. There have been 3 with that last name but all without any distinction. The only one of the three to play more than a handful of major league games was Ken MacKenzie, whose only claim to fame was pitching in 42 games for the original 1962 Mets. He even wound up with a minus bWAR in 129 games and 208 1/3 innings across his 5 MLB seasons. MacKenzie is one of just 3 MLB players with last name Gore. The one you might remember spent his career as a glorified pinch-runner: Terrance Gore, who stole 43 bases in just 112 games and 74 MLB at-bats from 2014 through 2022 (didn't play in MLB in 2021) for 4 teams including the Mets, his last team. The other is a 19th-century outfielder who played 14 seasons, 13 in the NL and one in the Players' League: George Gore. I'd never heard of him before, but he had a lifetime BAVG over .300, and scored over 1300 runs and got over 1600 hits, winning league titles with the Giants in 1888 and 1889. George is the Gore-iest major league in history at just under 40 bWAR (if bWAR from 130-140 years ago mean anything).





==============



The Yanks send Carlos Rodon to the mound to face off against Herz. He's pitched far better than last year when he was injured, but still not nearly as well as he did the two seasons before. He's been a credible member of the rotation, but has pitched more like a #4 starter than the #2 starter he was signed to be. He's 14-8 in 26 starts with an ERA of 4.16. In 140 2/3 innings, he's allowed 128 hits, 67 runs, 65 earned, 24 HR and 45 BB with 153 strikeouts. His WHIP on the season is a bit better than MLB average, 1.251. He's 8th in the AL in K's, but he's allowed the 4th most HRs, has the 4th highest HR/9 among 32 qualified AL starters.



Despite being in the majors for 10 seasons, Rodon has made just 1 start in his career against Washington. It was last August for the Yanks at the Stadium, and it was arguably his best start of the season. There were just 3 starts out of the 14 he made in which he allowed 1 run, he had none where he held the other team scoreless. Of those 3, his start against the Nats was the only one he made it through 6 innings. He allowed 6 hits, the only run was a solo HR, 0 BB and just 1 K. But Josiah Gray matched him with 1 run in 6 innings, and C.J. Abrams hit a solo HR in the 8th of Tommy Kahnle to give Washington a 2-1 win, with Rodon getting a no-decision.

I think Rice has been worse than DJ in August, if that's possible.  

DJ has been worse defensively than offensively ... if that is even possible 

Wells needs more playing time!         

Not in August.  Rice is hitting .063 this month with a .247 OPS.   The kid needs a break and trip back to Scranton.