David Hale wasn’t particularly great in his return from the Disabled List, giving-up 5 runs in a 5 inning appearance, but it didn’t matter to the Colorado Rockies when the group that came on in relief of Hale gave-up 9 hits, 7 bases-on-balls, and 10 runs in 4 frames of work as the Washington Nationals snapped a 6-game losing streak to beat Colorado 15-6 Monday night at Coors Field in Denver. Jordan Zimmermann (9-8, 3.44) got the win for the Nationals despite allowing 6 runs (4 earned) on 9 Rockies’ hits in a 6 inning stretch.
The Nats went-up early, scoring 2 in the 1st on a walk to Bryce Harper and Yunel Escobar’s home run. Colorado came right-back to tie when Carlos Gonzalez, who later left the contest with knee inflammation, lifted a moon shot to right with Jose Reyes aboard, then took a 3-2 lead when Nolan Arenado doubled and scored on a ground ball and an error by Washington shortstop Ian Desmond. They ran it to 4-2 in the 2nd on a homer by Reyes, who was 4 for 5.
The Nats tied it in the 3rd on a Danny Espinosa double, another walk to Harper (who had 4), and singles by Escobar and Desmond. Washington went ahead in the 4th on a Jayson Werth single and Espinosa double with 2-out. The teams traded single runs in the 5th, and the Rockies tied it in the 6th when Kyle Parker knocked one into the left-field pavilion.
Gonzalez Germen pitched a clean 6th for Colorado, then Justin Miller (1-2, 3.63) walked 2 and gave up a single for a run in the 7th, Tommy Kahnle walked 3 and gave-up 4 singles and 4 runs in the 8th, and Scott Oberg and Christian Friedrich used 2 walks and 3 hits to allow 3 more Nationals runs in the 9th.
A stunned Rockies’ offense went 0 for the final 3 as the team looks to put things back together for another 6:40 MDT start tonight against the group from DC down in LoDo. Lefty Jorge De La Rosa goes for Colorado against Washington right-hander Stephen Strasburg in a battle of aces.
Need a CG from JDLR just to avoid the bullpen.
Need CGs from all the SPs to avoid the BPs ineptitude.
Did ya see Kizla claiming that WW asked him if his job was in danger?
A nice comment about the front office don’t ya think?
Ya wanna go to bed early tonite? As soon as the starter leaves the game……
Wow – all sorts of interesting baseball news. Mike McHenry done for the year – knee surgery. Meniscus. Should easily be 100% next Spring. Looks like Dave Dombrowski will be the Red Sox President and hire a GM. DOD rumored to be in the mix. I hope this happens. I bet DOD excels with the proper support. Anyone remember me saying as far back as this time last year that the Yankees had three really good Prospects. Severino is now… Read more »
Of course, we’ll benefit immensely from another offseason of WW teaching base running fundamentals.
FIVE BBs in less than 6 = 100 losses.
So what does 8 BBs mean?
And my God, another WP for a score?
“A double on the near catch by Blackmon.” Yeah, right.
We need a poll each night of relievers to guess who will blow the game.
Nats have only one run despite 8 walks in 7 innings.
Nice hustle by DJ to anticipate that bad throw on the WP and get the out at third.
And Tonight’s Lucky Winner, Rafael Betancourt!!
And now a hatchet job by the Ax-Man.
I think once any Blowpen reliever gets two outs he needs to be replaced by somebody else. None of these guys can get more than two outs before giving up a run or three.
19 walks in two nights with still 2/3 innings to play and how many WP???. I’m going to the game tomorrow and it’s Yohan Flande. OK, at least he shouldn’t walk more than a couple. Then it should be time for us to go home as soon as Flande leaves the game. And Washington scored all of their runs with two outs. Not only the BBs and BBs that score that leads the majors by a mile, but the two-out… Read more »
And it’s so much fun to watch our 4A guys try to matchup to a Papelbon. Think Jonathan will need more than 10 pitches to get 3 outs?
C’mon guys, look at the bright side. Tonight we picked up a game on the Phillies and kept pace with the Marlins.
Ha! 9 pitches, 3 outs. Contrast our guys late inning ABs with the Nats. No patience, no discipline.
Yes and no. The fewer pitches is also because they threw strikes instead of balls. I didn’t watch closely, but did our batters swing at any bad pitches in the ninth?
Washington threw 80 strikes in 109 pitches (73%). Rox tossed 96 strikes in 173 pitches (55%). Therein lies the real problem.
Nice analysis that gets to the core of the problem.
Good point. JDLR threw shutout ball, but only for six innings and it took him 100+ pitches, with 6 BBs. Simply not good enough pitching against a real Ace (and with the Blowpen waiting behind him).
In fact, JDLR threw one more pitch in 6 innings than the entire Nationals staff through 9.
Just one win better than the Phillies now … that elusive first overall pick is clearly in sight. By the way, Jeff Hoffman got beat up in AA yesterday. And as others have mentioned, Kyle Freeland’s last start was a 4 HRs allowed disaster. I still like both. Neither is a sure thing by any means.
Who expects any pitcher to throw great games all year? Didn’t King Felix get blown up for 10 ERs in the first two innings last week? No prospect is a sure thing, but Hoffman has a great chance as he was drafted one pick after Freeland. (I don’t remember the exact numbers, but data showed that even first round picks have only a 20 (arbitrary guess based on my ancient memory) percent chance of having an extended career in the… Read more »
You’re darn right neither are sure things. That’s exactly why our entire organization is so fundamentally flawed. We need 30 Hoffmans/Freelands in the system. We currently have a dozen. We’re under staffed by 150% minimum. Good organizations (Cardinals for example) don’t hang their hats on a few names in the minors. They rely on mass talent and fundamental development. Players falling by the wayside is built into their system. They have the depth to withstand it. It’s an extremely simple… Read more »
Purple Row was trying to make a case for our bullpen being overworked. The three guys in my Saturday piece, Siegrist, Maness, Rosenthal all have way more appearances and are more reliable than any Rox reliever. So, here’s the point: Siegrist 41st round, Maness 11th round, Rosenthal 21st round. It’s not high draft picks or rated prospects that own the key to reliability.
Daniel Norris went DL with an oblique strain.
So…I’ve changed the name of the Blowpen to Bullsh*t Pen. Garneau starts behind the dish tonight and as we have seen lately, Sherzer hasn’t been worth the $$$ the Nats showered on him. So he’ll probably throw a 95 pitch CG tonite despite whatever comes of the purple mound.
Sheesh, glad I’m heading to South Dakota tomorrow.
I love to monitor trades to get an idea what GMs like or get an idea of “trends.” The Utley to Dodgers deal confirms what we know. Older players DO still have some value of their contracts aren’t prohibitive (meaning they’re rentals). Utley was owed 6M for the remainder of the season. The Phils agreed to pay 4M, and in return get 2 prospects. 1 of the 2 I find intriguing. This represents a good way to mitigate a sunk… Read more »