Rockies 2, Nats 1
You knew the law of averages had to catch up to the Nats at some point. You can’t just go on winning one-run games all summer. The best way to avoid the ups-and-downs of that kind of baseball is just score some more runs, as second baseman Danny Espinosa said earlier this week. Easier said than done against a pitcher like Ubaldo Jimenez.
So the Nats missed their chances at the plate in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Jayson Werth’s double play ended it and let’s just say the Nationals Park crowd didn’t exactly react with empathy. Read all about it in our game story here.
Werth declined to talk to reporters through a team spokesman after the game. Fellow outfielder Laynce Nix did the same – though we caught him in person. Frustrated group after letting a few winnable games get away. But there is another chance to get to .500 at the All-Star break when the two teams meet at 1:35 p.m. on Sunday. Jordan Zimmermann (5-7, 2.82 ERA) goes for Washington and Jhoulys Chacin (8-6, 3.28 ERA) is on the mound for Colorado. How big is that one?
“All that stuff’s kind of here and there,” shortstop Ian Desmond said. “Momentum is a game-by-game, out-by-out type thing. Say we lose tomorrow we come back after the All-Star break and the first guy up hits a home run and then it’s right back on our side. I don’t think anybody in here is really looking too far into that. It would definitely be nice to get a win and show the kind of ball that we play. But I don’t really look too deep into that stuff.”
Danny Espinosa said he’d rather lose one-run games than be a team that keeps getting embarrassed night after night. At least in this case you know your club was in the game the entire time and had chances to win. But he sees Sunday’s game as a bigger deal.
“I think just the one game to be .500 going into the second half would be huge,” Espinosa said. “We don’t want to be under .500 going into the second half. If we do we are. It’s not going to affect us in the long run. But to be .500 and end the first half on a winning note might give us some good momentum to carry over into the second half.”
Desmond mentioned the positives in his postgame interview – better defense, solid starting pitching and what he called “a new weapon” in starter-turned reliever Ross Detwiler. That role may not last the entire second half for Detwiler. There is an innings limit for Zimmermann, after all. But for one night at least he took to it. Detwiler kept the Nats close with a scoreless seventh and eighth innings. He gave up a hit and a walk, but kept the score 2-1. Washington manager Davey Johnson gave him plenty of time to warm up in the bullpen. That may not always be a luxury in the coming weeks.
“It’s just how my body is going to respond to trying to get up quick,” Detwiler said. “Whereas I’ve been in a routine for four years now as a starter. But you never know. It could be an easy transition.”
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