The Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals split Sunday night doubleheader

The Rockies split the doubleheader to snap their losing streak and debut their new uniforms.

Game 1: Nationals 3, Rockies 2

The Colorado Rockies dropped the first game of the doubleheader to increase their losing streak to eight games and cement yet another series loss.

Early errors…ew

Trouble came early for the Rockies when, in the top of the second inning, back-to-back singles by Dylan Crews and Riley Adams put two on with one out for the Nationals. When both moved to steal a base, Braxton Fulford’s attempted pickoff throw to third sailed over Ryan McMahon’s head into left field, allowing the Nats to take 1-0 lead.

Washington kept the pressure on when they loaded the bases, but Freeland had seemingly worked his way out of the jam when he coaxed a weak ground ball off the bat of Nasim Nuñez. Freeland tossed the ball to home plate for the second out, but Fulford’s subsequent throw to first base — which would have ended the frame — instead flew into right field, allowing two more runs to score.

The two misplays allowed the visitors to take an early 3-0 lead over the Rox.

Fielding issues continue to plague Colorado. They opened play Saturday owning the second-lowest fielding percentage in MLB, and may fall below the Boston Red Sox in that category by the day’s end.

Veen’s very evvective

The Rockies were able to respond in the bottom of the third, courtesy of exciting youngster Zac Veen. He entered Saturday’s afternoon bout having scuffled at the plate recently as he’d collected just one hit in his last 12 at-bats.

He started off the day right by swatting a 1-0 changeup 412 feet over the right field scoreboard for his first Major League home run.

Veen wasn’t done there, as he was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the fifth frame. Bouncing around at first, he swiped second base to record his first career stolen bag. Have a day, youngster!

Fulford joins the fun

Braxton Fulford may have had a tough second inning behind the dish, but he bounced back in a big way in the bottom of the sixth. Still searching for his first MLB knock, Fulford faced down Jake Irvin and tanked his 1-1 fastball 433 feet — the longest home run for a Rockie this season — for his first career hit, home run, RBI, and run scored. That’s got to feel good.

The long ball brought the Rox within a run of tying the Nats as the game entered its latter three innings. It’s just the second time in Rockies history two players have hit their first career home run in the same game.

Want to try to guess the first Rockies who did this?

The answer is Edgar Clemente and Curtis Leskanic in 1999.

How’s that for some trivia?

Bullpen steps up

Kyle Freeland was forced into an early exit after just two innings of work, but it wasn’t because of his pitching performance. Instead, the local lefty had begun developing another blister on his left hand, and was thusly swapped out to avoid aggravating it further.

That meant that Sunday afternoon ostensibly acted as a bullpen game, and though it wasn’t originally the game plan, they were able to execute it.

Angel Chivilli entered in the top of the third and worked around a hit and two walks to toss three scoreless innings. Jimmy Herget then got to work and shut Washington down for an additional two frames. He passed the baton to Scott Alexander in the eighth, who recorded the first two outs before ceding a walk to Josh Bell and a hit to Nathaniel Lowe. Not to worry, as Seth Halvorsen needed just one pitch to get a ground out to end the inning.

Halvorsen then worked around a third Fulford throwing error (hey, being a catcher ain’t easy) to keep the game at 3-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Could the Rockies get the offense going and wrest victory from the Nationals?

So close, yet again…

The Rockies entered the bottom of the ninth with just four total hits — the two rookie homers, and singles by Sean Bouchard and Hunter Goodman. Even with the lineup cold to that point, they found themselves down just one run and in need of one big hit to find themselves square with the visiting Nationals.

A one-out Ryan McMahon walk put the tying run on base.

Hunter Goodman then struck out, but the resulting wild pitch eluded Washington catcher Riley Adams and allowed McMahon to scurry all the way to third. With the tying run just 90 feet away for the second game in a row, Nick Martini grounded out to first base, sealing Colorado’s fate and handing the visiting Nationals their second straight one-run win and the Rockies their eighth consecutive loss.

★ ★ ★

Game 2: Rockies 3, Nationals 1

The Rockies finally snapped their losing streak after eight games. They notched their first win since April 10th—against the Milwaukee Brewers—to avoid their third consecutive sweep and split the doubleheader. The pitching kept the Rockies ahead in a close game with Tyler Kinley closing out the night for his first save of the season.

Senzational

After back-to-back rough outings from right-handed starter Antonio Senzatela, it was nice to see the veteran dial in his first Quality Start of the season. Backed up by some stupendous defense, Senzatela threw 83 pitches—55 for strikes—and gave up just one earned run. As is customary, Senzatela gave up a decent amount of contact. The Nationals had six hits—all singles—and drew one walk while striking out twice. Senzatela lowered his ERA to 4.81 on the season and is credited with his first win since June 19th, 2022.

The Birdman flies again

Right-handed reliever Jake Bird has increased his scoreless streak to 5 ¹⁄₃ innings with a shutout frame in relief of Antonio Senzatela. Although he did yield a walk, Bird recorded all three outs via the strikeout. Bird has worn multiple hats so far this season, working both as a multiple inning pitcher and a single inning reliever. He has lowered his ERA to 1.42 and has 16 strikeouts so far this season.

The gloves were golden

The Rockies played excellent defense to back up their pitching staff. Aaron Schunk and Sean Bouchard—both playing out of their natural positions—connected on multiple solid plays, including one where Bouchard kept his foot on first base despite falling over in the process. The Rockies also made multiple stupendous diving catches despite their outfield superman Brenton Doyle being away from the team on the bereavement list. Jordan Beck and Mickey Moniak were the ones to fill his shoes.

Welcome to the show!

It seems like there have been a lot of big league debuts for the Rockies over the last few weeks. Tonight’s star was right-handed pitcher and 2022 draft pick Zach Agnos. Sporting a Rollie Fingers-style curled mustache and the vibrant City Connect uniforms, Agnos worked a scoreless eighth inning. He gave up a hit in a shutout frame, but was unable to collect his first big league strikeout. Hopefully he will have many more opportunities to do so this season.

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Coming Up Next

The Rockies are off tomorrow for a rest and travel day before heading off to the City of Fountains where the Kansas City Royals await them for a three game series. Ryan Feltner will face off against left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 PM MDT.