Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore to be examined for elbow pain

San Diego Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore was taken out of Monday night’s game early with a sore elbow. Pitching in relief, he struggled as San Diego dropped a 12-4 loss against the Detroit Tigers.

According to USA Today, Gore will stay in Detroit for the last two games of the series and then fly home to be examined.

Gore came in as a relief pitcher and, according to manager Bob Melvin, there were signs that he was hurting.

"“His (velocity) was down some, and it hasn’t been great for a while. It went down to 90, but then came back up to 92. I saw him flexing his fist, the move you make when your elbow is hurting, so we did the proper thing to get him out of here.” -Bob Melvin, via USA Today"

Gore was once a top pitching prospect, but his performance has unfortunately gone downhill this season.

Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore has been struggling since June

Gore started this season extremely well. In May, over 26.2 innings pitched, he produced an earned-run average of 1.69, batting average against of .204 and WHIP of 1.01. In June, over 17.1 innings, he produced an ERA of 7.27, BAA of .282 and WHIP of 1.96.

He now has a high career average ERA of 4.50, BAA of .248 and WHIP of 1.47 which has significantly gotten worse over June and July.

According to ESPN, he went 4-1 in the first nine games of his career and produced an ERA of 1.50. He also started in eight of those nine games.

Though it’s unclear how long he’s been hurting, the pain could be to blame for his downfall.

"“Over the course of the season, you’ll have some aches and pains, days where nothing feels great, but we’ve given him some extended time off. He’s had some breaks, we put him in the bullpen and we limited his pitches. So when this popped up today, we felt like we needed to get him out of there.” -Bob Melvin, via USA Today"