A top Cubs trade deadline target has imploded over his last four starts

Scott Taetsch/GettyImagesAs Jed Hoyer prepares to die on the hill he's built in defense of the ill-fated Michael Soroka trade, one of the Chicago Cubs' top trade deadline targets has been near-unpitchable over his last four starts. But let's be clear: this is not a defense of Hoyer's inexcusable gamble on a reclamation project being his solution to the team's long-standing rotation problems.

Washington Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore is winless in his last four starts and has allowed two home runs in three of those outings. He's pitched just 15 2/3 innings over that stretch and has been torched to the tune of 23 runs on 29 hits and five wild pitches. That's culminated in an unsightly…