Instead of progressing forward in their rebuild, the Washington Nationals appear to have done nothing but take a step back in 2025. On Tuesday night, the Nationals fell to 44-68 on the year after being on the receiving end of a 16-7 beatdown from the Athletics. This is nothing but a continuation of their poor play as of late, and starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore, who surrendered eight earned runs on 12 hits on Tuesday night, couldn't be any more frustrated.
Following the Nationals' defeat to the Athletics, Gore went out and expressed just how irate he was over his and his team's performance during this current homestand of theirs thus far (which has spanned the past four games).
“This is embarrassing. We shouldn't just try to act like nothing happened here. What has happened this homestand is not acceptable, no matter what happened last week. We're all better than this. This is embarrassing. We've got to not let it affect everybody. We've got to be able to come together as a group and get better. What happened this homestand, it's hard to watch,” Gore said, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN.
The Nationals should be very terrified of how poorly they've been playing over the past four games. They've been outscored by 33 runs during that span, and the paying fans at Nationals Park have to be demanding refunds after witnessing such pitiful performances.
Mackenzie Gore isn't typically this bad for the Nationals
Heading into their Tuesday night contest against the Athletics, Gore was sporting a 3.80 ERA in 22 starts (123.0 innings pitched). Suffice to say, he's been one of the lone bright spots for a Nationals team depleted of them. But even Gore couldn't escape the rot the team is currently mired in at the moment. His ERA jumped from 3.80 to 4.29 with just one start and he shoulders most of the blame for that.
Gore, of course, would be the first to admit that he wasn't good at all on Tuesday. Allowing eight runs to cross the plate in just three innings is simply borderline impossible to come back from, and the Nationals don't even have the firepower to overcome such a huge deficit.
It has to get worse before it gets better, or so the old adage goes. But just how bad will Gore and the Nationals allow it to get before they snap out of it and play with a greater sense of urgency? They have two more games against the Athletics to get it together on this homestand.
