The Colorado Rockies escaped the morass they found themselves in during their Atlanta trip and escaped the usual roadblocks inside the beltway in Washington. The Rockies emerged with a 3-2 victory on Friday night.
After going down, 1-0, after the first inning, the Rockies struck in the fourth inning. Jonathan Herrera worked a walk and Todd Helton singled to give Ty Wigginton two base runners. Wigginton did single in Herrera for a run, but the ball hit off the face of Nationals starter John Lannan (5-6, 3.34 ERA), who was diagnosed with a nasal contusion. Ryan Mattheus entered the game, allowed the runners to move over on a Mark Ellis ground out, hesitated on the mound after that and balked in Todd Helton to give the Rockies the lead. Cole Garner then picked up his first major league hit, plating a run, but was tagged out at second while try to extend the play.
Wilson Ramos countered with a solo home run off Jason Hammel (5-8, 4.23 ERA0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, but that was the last tun he allowed. Other than that and the Michael Morse sac fly in the first, Hammel did a great job through 6.1 innings. The sac fly is notable because it came when the bases were loaded. Hammel struck out Jayson Werth and got Rick Ankiel to pop out to end the inning.
After Matt Reynolds and Matt Belisle bridged the gap to Huston Street, the closer got a strike 'em out, throw 'em out and a strikeout to pick up his 25th save.
Carlos Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in his return to the lineup. Ian Stewart went hitless in three at-bats.
The Rockies (42-47, 20-25 away) continue this series on Saturday evening at 5:05 p.m. MT. Ubaldo Jimenez and Jason Marquis are the scheduled starters.
For more on the Rockies, check out Purple Row. Visit Federal Baseball and SB Nation DC for news and notes on the Nationals.