By Zachary McMahon-
The Washington Nationals hosted the Colorado Rockies on Thursday afternoon at the conclusion of their four-game series. The Rockies had won the first three games of the series, and are trying to sweep a four-game series. The Rockies had a four-game winning streak, which is their longest winning streak of the season.
The Nats had Trevor Williams go 5 ⅓ innings, where he allowed eight hits, two earned runs, one walk, and a season-high six strikeouts.
The Rockies had Chase Dollander go six innings where he had allowed six hits, two earned runs, no walks, and two strikeouts. Dollander went six innings in two straight starts for the first time in his career. He’s the youngest pitcher to have back-to-back starts of six innings since German Marquez’s 12-game streak in 2018, which is the most by a Rockies pitcher who is 23 years, 236 days or younger in franchise history, which is Dollander’s age.
James Wood hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning as he got an extra base hit in back-to-back games.
In the fifth inning, the Rockies tied the game, while Jordan Beck hit a RBI Double and Mickey Moniak hit an RBI single.
All three batters in the eighth inning by two different pitchers as Jose Ferrer was taken out by Kyle Finnegan for the last out of the eighth inning, and then struck out Brenton Doyle.
Finnegan then had a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the ninth, and then Victor Vodnik struck out the last two batters of the bottom of the ninth after allowing an infield single by Luis Garcia Jr.
Zach Brzykcy pitched in the 10th inning with Ryan Ritter as the automatic runner at second base. Ritter didn’t move out of second base, despite a walk to Hunter Goodman. Ryan McMahon walked to end the inning.
Alex Call pinch hit for Josh Bell in the bottom half of the inning, and hit a sacrifice bunt to move Brady House to third, who was the automatic runner. Ryan Rolison was able to make back-to-back groundouts to end the inning, and to extend the game into the 11th inning.
Michael Toglia hit a go-ahead RBI single that brought home McMahon. Sam Hilliard struck out, and Orlando Arcia grounded out to end the inning, but the Rockies had a 3-2 lead.
That was not long as Wood hit his second two-run homer of the game, and it was his second career walk off as the Nats won 4-3 in the 11th inning against the Rockies, and stopped the sweep by the Rockies.
The Nationals top three batters, C.J. Abrams, Wood and Garcia Jr. all had multiple hits and had seven out of the eight hits that the Nats had. Jacob Young had the other hit as a single in the second inning.
Meanwhile, the Rockies had 10 batters in the game, and all had at least one hit, which included a pinch hit single by Tyler Freeman in the seventh inning, when he subbed in for Moniak in right field. McMahon was the only Rockie to have multiple hits with two singles.
Ryan Loutos got his first career win after pitching in the top of the 10th. Lotus made his fourth appearance with the Nats after he was claimed on waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 10th.
McMahon had two hits in back-to-back games, Beck has reached in his last seven starts. Doyle had broken a 0-for-18 slump with a double in the sixth. Ritter’s single in the ninth broke a hitless streak of three games, after hitting in his first six career games. Toglia has had an RBI in his fourth consecutive games, which is one away from his career long streak of five games in 2023.
Abrams has reached multiple times in the last three games, and he’s had multiple hits in four out of the last seven games, and overall he has an eight game on-base streak. Wood had his second multi-homer game and his third of his career. Wood has reached multiple times in the last five games, and in nine out of the last 10 games. Garcia Jr. had three hits including a double, and has reached in his last 10 games.
Wood also lined into double plays, as Abrams was picked off first twice in the game. He’s the first player to have two home runs and to have two double plays in the same game since Evan Longoria in 2012 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Nats will travel to the West Coast to face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the three-game series with Mackenzie Gore going up against Clayton Kershaw at 10:10 pm first pitch. The Rockies will head back to Coors Field to start a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks at 8:40 pm first pitch with Austin Gomber going up against Zac Gallen.
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