The Colorado Rockies shook off their bad experience with the Atlanta Braves and picked up a win in their first game with the Washington Nationals. It was a tight 3-2 victory on Friday night with a solid outing by Jason Hammel. The Rockies will turn to Ubaldo Jimenez on Saturday evening.
Jimenez (3-8, 4.39 ERA) is far from the pitcher he was at this point last year, but he's been improving since the start of June. On July 4, Jimenez did take his eighth loss of the season, but then his offense was only able to score one run in the 4-1 loss. He walked just one and struck out nine in 5.1 innings. What hurt him was his inability to limit his pitches each inning. He ran into 117 pitches with one out in the sixth inning. In Washington, Jimenez is 2-0 in two career starts and owns 1.17 ERA with in 15.1 innings. He went 7.1 innings in 2010 and shutout the Nationals over that span.
Here is what we said earlier about Marquis:
The Rockies are familiar with Jason Marquis (7-3, 4.11 ERA) because of his 2009 season in Colorado. He moved on as a free agent in 2010, but injury caused him to miss the Rockies series' as well as most of the season. He was roughed up even worse than Hammel was in his last start. Marquis allowed seven runs in 1.1 innings and saw the Pirates pick up a 10-2 victory.
First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. MT. Turn on either ROOT or 850KOA for coverage.
For more on the Rockies, check out Purple Row. Visit Federal Baseball and SB Nation DC for news and notes on the Nationals.