Cal notes: Gore decimating opponents

Lake Elsinore left-hander MacKenzie Gore seems to get better with every outing.
After striking out a career-high 11 batters against Rancho Cucamonga on April 29, the Padres' No. 2 prospect pitched five no-hit innings against the Lancaster on Sunday.

Gore retired the first 10 batters he faced before issuing back-to-back walks in the fourth inning to Matt McLaughlin and Luis Castro.
"If I look at it, it probably wasn't very sharp today," he said. "The stuff was good, but I wasn't very sharp. I had two walks in that fourth inning after [we put up] the five-spot, which was not good. I was pretty frustrated with myself. But the fastball was good and I landed breaking balls early in the count. It was good day."
The 20-year-old threw 47 of 74 pitches for strikes, fanning seven and issuing just the two walks as he posted his third win of the season and dropped his ERA to 1.15.
"It was good -- five innings, they were solid," Gore said. "I just go until they take the ball from me."
Steven Wilson relieved Gore and extended the no-hitter for two frames on a windy afternoon at The Hangar. But Fred Schlichtholz allowed back-to-back singles to start the eighth.
"As a staff, we went seven no-hit innings in Lancaster," Gore said. "That's really good. We threw a shutout in Lancaster."
The southpaw has always maintained a low ERA, finishing with a 0.08 mark in his junior year at Whiteville (N.C.) High School. He followed that with a 0.19 ERA as a senior and was named Gatorade Player of the Year in 2017. The Padres drafted him third overall later that year.
But his first full season in the Minor Leagues was plagued by finger blisters last year.
"It was tough," Gore said. "I was on the disabled list for 60 games or something like that."
The mental side of being sidelined was tough but contained a silver lining for the fierce competitor.
"It was good for me. I'm a lot better now because of that," he said. "So I'm glad it happened. I thought I was tough, but you get hit in the mouth and I didn't really know what to do -- I'd never been hurt like that. There were a lot of dark days last year, but it was a blessing in disguise and I'm glad it happened."
Making his first competitive appearance since August was a relief for Gore, but it also proved a little nerve-racking.
"It was great. A little nervous though," he said. "After the first one in Spring Training, I kept getting better every start, and I'm trying to do that the rest of the year."
Being a top prospect in an organization loaded with young talent is something he tries not to think about.
"I've always held myself to a high standard," Gore said. "I kind of ignore the noise. I appreciate it, but there's a lot of good players around me, so if I don't work, I'm going to get left behind and other guys are going to get to the big leagues."
If he keeps pitching like he did on Sunday, he'll start hearing a lot more "noise," which doesn't bother him.
"That's good. It's part of the game," he said. "It can't change me. I've got to be the same guy with the hype or without it."
That attitude has worked for the past few seasons, especially in high school, when he won all kinds of awards and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated after winning the Gatorade honor. He didn't keep all the hardware, handing his state championship MVP award to the teammate who delivered the walk-off hit.
"I'd done my job and I was happy with the win, and I don't need another award -- all I wanted was the ring," Gore said.

MLB.com's No. 14 overall prospect remains the kind of player who just wants to do what he can to succeed and help his team win.
"I want to go out here and play the game the right way and hopefully play harder than everybody else on the field," Gore said. "That's how I want to go out here and compete."

In brief

Double the Fun: A day after watching Lancaster teammate Casey Golden fall one double short of tying the California League record for doubles in a game, Sean Bouchard went the distance with four doubles against Lake Elsinore on Saturday night.
"Really?" Bouchard asked after learning he tied the record. "That's cool. The main thing is, we keep picking each other up -- the defense picking up our pitchers and the pitchers picking up our hitters. We're really feeding off each other right now. We know who we are as a team."
Home run hitters: Rancho Cucamonga slugged four homers on Friday, added three on Saturday and two on Sunday to lead the circuit in long balls. The Quakes are the only team with more homers (33) than games played (31). Last season, they hit a franchise-record 202 roundtrippers.
Struggling Giants: San Jose is 3-10 in games decided by one or two runs. None of the Giants' starters had picked up a win until Sunday as they've combined for a 1-13 record and 5.44 ERA. To make matters worse, San Jose has five players from the Opening Night roster on the injured list: catcher Joey Bart, outfielder Heliot Ramos, third baseman David Villar and pitchers Jose Marte and John Russell. Bart and Ramos are the top two prospects in the San Francisco system, while Marte is ranked 27th.