Colorado Rockies defeat Washington Nationals 3-2 – MLB Update
Jason Hammel pitched six quality innings to help the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 at Nationals Park on Friday, July 8 to win the first of three-game series.
The Rockies have recently had confronted a host of issues, including the expulsion of the pitching coach last week. However on Friday, the newly appointed Bob Apodaca had given Hammel useful enough tips to change the map of the game.
Even though it was the Nationals’ offence which seemed buoyant in the start with Michael Morse’ early sacrifice fly hit, Hammel remained unplayable afterwards and was supported by the Rockies’ offence.
Hammel’s pitching inspired the compliment of the team manager as well. “I felt he was a lot smoother," Colorado’s manager Jim Tracy said, "He threw quality strikes up and down in the zone."
"I needed to change something up," Hammel said. "I was in this rut where a lot of games we should have won when I was on the mound we didn't, and other games I wasn't even showing up."
Jason kept pitching brilliant fastballs with great variation to contain the Nationals’ offence. His strategy seemed to work well, as throughout his innings he got his reward.
Ty Wigginton singled to centre in the fourth inning to level the score for the Rockies when Washington’s starter John Lannan entered into the fourth inning. The 4-hit fourth inning did not only level the score, but included a two-run tiebreaking score as
well.
Cole Garner hit a big hit to instill some new energy in the Rockies’ offence which did not look back after that. Garner’s two-run homer took the score to 3-1 that the Colorado pitchers successfully guarded.
Apart from Wilson Ramos’ RBI single that brought the lead down to 3-2 for the Nationals, the offence hardly had any chance to open their bats.
Once Hammel pitched the sixth inning, keeping it a shut-out, Matt Reynolds came as a reliever. His was another brilliant inning to pitch.
"You forget what it feels like sometimes," said reliever Matt Reynolds. "Get a good start, good defense, enough offense. It's a formula we'd like to keep going."
Huston Street, serving as the closer for the now energised Rockies, was no less impressive in the ninth. The closer threw unplayable fastballs to seal the 3-2 victory for his team, providing a wonderfully good start in the three-game series’ first encounter.
The Rockies will now face the Nationals on Saturday in the second game of the series with an edge. Colorado will be filled with confidence from their victory. The Nationals will be looking to do things differently and get their offence to fire against the
Rockies’ pitching line-up.
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