The Colorado Rockies emerged with a 15-7 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night. It was an old-fashioned Coors Field slugfest as good pitching was hard to come by throughout the game.
The Rockies knocked around Livan Hernandez for nine runs in 3-2/3 innings. The Rockies broke things open in the third inning when Chris Iannetta scored as a result of a throwing error by Hernandez. Dexter Fowler followed with a two-run triple and Troy Tulowitzki had a sac fly for the early 4-0 lead.
Ty Wigginton (14) and Chris Iannetta (12) each hit a home run off of Hernandez, the latter a two-run shot, in the fourth inning. But that was just the start of the scoring that inning, as Carlos Gonzalez and Tulowitzki each had an RBI single and Eric Young Jr. scored on a wild pitch.
Jhoulys Chacin (9-8, 3.45 ERA) did have his share of troubles, allowing three runs in five innings. His habit of walking too many batters did show up, issuing five free passes. Greg Reynolds recently recalled after Juan Nicasio's broken neck came in during the sixth inning and allowed four runs, two on a Rick Ankiel home run. Michael Morse continued his hot hitting against the Rockies with an RBI single that inning, going 4-for-5 with three RBI in the game.
The Rockies came up with six more runs over the final three innings of the. Dexter Fowler drove in his third and fourth RBI of the game with a single in the seventh. Two runs in the eighth scored on a bases-loaded walk by Ian Stewart and on a bases-loaded wild pitch by Henry Rodriguez. Matt Belisle and Rafael Betancourt stopped the Nationals from countering with any more runs before Rex Brothers finished the game in the ninth inning.
The Rockies (53-61, 28-30 home) finish this series at 1:10 p.m. MT on Sunday. Aaron Cook and John Lannan are the scheduled starters.
For more on the Nationals, visit Federal Baseball and SB Nation DC. As always, check out Purple Row.