The Washington Nationals are taking steps to limit the workload on their young starting pitchers as the season rolls on.
The team will be deploying a six-man rotation that will limit the throwing of both MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin.
The following update on Gore comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:
ANALYSIS
The 24-year-old southpaw has already thrown a career-high 117 innings this season, 30 more than he tossed across all levels in 2022. "I was hurt last year, I didn't throw many innings. So that's a real thing that we're going to have to deal with," Gore said Wednesday after his start against the Phillies. Shifting to a six-man rotation will cost the Nats' regular starters a turn or two over the remainder of the season, but if younger arms like Gore or Jake Irvin show serious signs of fatigue in August, the team could re-evaluate the situation when rosters expand in September. After wrapping up May with a 3.57 ERA, Gore has regressed to a 5.64 ERA over his last 59 innings, albeit with a strong 60:22 K:BB.
As for Irvin:
The 26-year-old right-hander has thrown 106.1 innings between Triple-A and the majors this season, which already tops the 103.1 frames Irvin worked the year before in his return from Tommy John surgery in October 2020...Irvin has a 5.20 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 31:11 K:BB through 36.1 innings since the beginning of July.
The Nationals will host the Oakland Athletics on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. as Joan Adon (WAS) pitches against Paul Blackburn (OAK).
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