In a rare ineffective performance, the Nationals bullpen surrendered a 3-1 lead over the last two innings, allowing the tying and winning runs on wild pitches in an eventual 4-3 win for the Colorado Rockies at Nationals Park. The loss allowed the Rockies to win both the series and the season from the Nationals, who saw their lead atop the National League East cut to four games over the Atlanta Braves.

It seemed like a standard-issue affair through seven innings for Washington, which had a 3-1 lead fueled largely by starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who threw seven innings of three-hit ball in the 101-degree heat and turned the game over to the pen in search of his third straight win. But the Rockies rallied immediately against Sean Burnett.

Ian Desmond finished the first half strong, homering again Sunday against the Rockies. (Image: Brad Mills, US Presswire)

Eric Young, coming off the bench in the pitcher’s spot, greeted Burnett with a line-drive homer to left to cut the Washington lead to 3-2. A pair of subsequent singles by Dexter Fowler and Marco Scutaro drove Burnett from the contest without recording an out. Mike Gonzalez came in to face Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez with runners on the corners, but promptly threw a slider in the dirt that skipped off the chest of catcher Jhonatan Solano, scoring Fowler with the tying run.

With the game tied, closer Tyler Clippard came on in the ninth inning and suffered a similar fate. Jordan Pacheco led off with a double and moved to third on a bunt. With Jason Giambi at the plate, Clippard (2-3) bounced one that Solano tried to backhand to no avail, allowing Pacheco to slide home with the go-ahead run.

Washington rallied in the ninth against Colorado closer Rafael Betancourt, getting runners to second and third with two outs, but Betancourt pumped a fastball past pinch-hitter Jesus Flores to end the game and nail down his 15th save. Rex Brothers (4-2) pitched a scoreless eighth inning for Colorado to earn the win.

Up until the eighth inning, things were going swimmingly for the Nationals despite falling behind in the second on a sacrifice fly by former Washington catcher Wil Nieves. Ian Desmond continued his breakout season and torrid hot stretch by blasting a two-run home run in the fourth inning off Colorado starter Jeremy Guthrie to give the Nationals a 2-1 lead. Desmond’s decision to skip the All-Star Game to rest a strained oblique looks more and more interesting, in light of his recent success. In his last 13 games, Desmond has 14 extra-base hits, six home runs and 15 RBIs.

The Nationals extended their lead in the seventh thanks to a single by Steve Lombardozzi that scored Roger Bernadina. At that point, Zimmermann, who had been cruising all day, had thrown 95 pitches and given the steamy conditions, was given the rest of the day off, an easy decision given the quality of the Nationals bullpen this season. For the first time in a while, though, that decision didn’t pan out.

Champ of the Game: Ian Desmond. Like a broken record, Desmond continues to string together strong games. His homer today tied Orlando Cabrera for the franchise single-season record for home runs by a shortstop with 17. He is also one of just two shortstops in baseball to lead his team in home runs (Houston’s Jed Lowrie is the other). For Colorado, Eric Young gets the nod, jump-starting the Rockies comeback with his pinch-hit home run off Burnett.

Chump of the Game: Jhonatan Solano. I know we all love “The Onion,” but Sunday was not his strongest performance. A pair of strikeouts in an 0-for-3 day at the plate wasn’t even as bad as his failure to block the wild pitch by Clippard in the ninth inning. Yes, it was in the dirt, but Solano didn’t move his body at all to try and get in front of it. In that situation, it was a killer. For the Rockies, Carlos Gonzalez contributed nothing, striking out twice and going 0-for-4. Over the last two games, CarGo fanned five times and went 0-for-8.

Next Game: For Washington’s three remaining All-Star representatives — Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Bryce Harper — it will be the All-Star Game in Kansas City on Tuesday night. For the full squad, it will come Friday at 7:10 ET at Marlins Park. Nothing is set in stone as far as pitching match-ups are concerned, but a tentative pairing will pit the Nationals Jordan Zimmermann (5-6, 2.61 ERA) against Miami’s Josh Johnson (5-5, 4.06).

You wouldn’t have guessed that from tonight’s game.

Jul 6, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher

Despite a strong start from Stephen Strasburg (L, 9-4), who allowed two earned runs in six innings, the Nationals’ bats fell silent and their four-game winning streak was snapped as the Nats (48-33) lost to the Rockies, 5-1.

Strasburg was not dominant but pitched well, allowing eight hits, one walk, and two earned runs (in addition to one unearned), all on homers by Tyler Colvin, in six innings in addition to six strikeouts. He threw 107 pitches in those six innings, and was replaced by Tom Gorzelanny to start the seventh. Both Gorzelanny and Ryan Mattheus, who pitched the eighth, allowed one run, putting the game further out of reach for the Nats. Henry Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth, but it would be of little help.

Rockies’ starter Drew Pomeranz was dominant against the Nats, striking out six and allowing only one hit in 6.1 IP. Matt Belisle and Rex Brothers followed up Pomeranz and combined to finish the seventh and eighth while still allowing no runs. The shutout was finally broken when Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo homer to lead off the ninth. Then, with hits from Adam LaRoche and Michael Morse, the Nationals had runners on second and third with no outs, but three straight outs recorded by Rafael Betancourt quickly ended the Nats’ rally bid.

Champ of the Game: Strasburg, whose outing was lackluster for him, but with a 3.00 ERA and a 9.00 K/9, had better stats in this start than Zack Greinke has had for the entire season (3.08 ERA, 8.83 K/9).

For the Rockies, Pomeranz pitched like everyone would expect Strasburg to.

Chump of the Game: The middle infield duo of Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa, who combined went 0-8 with 3 strikeouts.

Colorado’s Rex Brothers recorded only one out before allowing the Zimmerman home run and getting pulled.

Unsung Hero: Adam LaRoche, who was 1-4 but managed the Nats’ only hit with a runner in scoring position.

Carlos Gonzalez was 2-3 with a walk and two runs scored for the Rockies.

Next Game: Tomorrow vs. Colorado, 4:05PM. Jeff Francis (2-1, 5.16) vs. Gio Gonzalez (11-3, 3.01).

The Nationals continued feasting on Colorado’s beleaguered pitching staff, plating double-digits in runs for the third straight day, but a shaky start from Edwin Jackson and a late-game strikeout binge at the plate cost Washington the chance to win the series outright.

Marco Scutaro had the game-winning hit for the Rockies, dropping a single to right field to score Jonathan Herrera with the winning run and make a loser of Craig Stammen (3-1), pitching into his third inning of work. Herrera reached with a one-out double into the left-center gap and advanced to third on a long flyout by Dexter Fowler. Scutaro then ended the game to gain a split for the Rockies.

Adam Ottavino (2-0) got the win with two innings of stellar relief work, fanning five of the six Washington batters he faced after surrendering a double to Ian Desmond leading off the 10th inning.

Edwin Jackson fell behind quickly, allowing the first eight batters he faced to reach base Thursday. (Image:

The way the game started, it never looked like heading for extra innings. Nationals starter Edwin Jackson again came out of the gate with less than his best stuff, in a similar fashion to his last start in Baltimore. The difference Thursday was he never found a groove — Colorado’s first eight batters reached base against Jackson, who gave up five runs and may have been lucky to avoid more. Tyler Colvin provided the big blow, pounding a three-run homer to kickstart a big day at the plate for him. Starting in place of Michael Cuddyer, Colvin went 4-for-6, drove in five runs and finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

Colorado tacked on two more runs in the second inning, putting the Nats in a 7-0 hole. On a getaway day, that might have been all she wrote, but this is Coors Field. Washington got back to within 7-5 with a five-run third, Michael Morse answering Colvin’s three-run bomb with a similar shot that scraped the back of the center field fence.

Tom Gorzelanny came on to relieve Jackson in the fourth inning, and didn’t fare much better. A Colvin triple drove in another run, and after Washington again turned on the bats, plating four in the fifth to tie the game at 9-9, Gorzelanny surrendered the lead in the bottom half thanks to a rally begun by hitting pitcher Josh Roenicke with a pitch.

That run looked like it might hold up, as the Colorado bullpen did its job until the top of the ninth inning. Bryce Harper greeted Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt by blasting a long game-tying home run into the Rockies bullpen to send the game into extra frames.

Champ of the Game: Michael Morse. The Beast reached base three times to cap a nine-hit series and also scored a pair of runs. Yes, it’s Coors Field, but between Morse and Ryan Zimmerman, the middle of the Nationals order woke up this week and provided fans a look at what the lineup can do when clicking on all cylinders. For the Rockies, Colvin gets the nod for his career day.

Chump of the Game: Edwin Jackson. The Nationals have only allowed more than 10 runs in a game twice this season — both in games that Jackson started and gave up a five-spot in the fifth inning. If he could have limited the Rockies to that, it would have been a nice, bullpen-saving performance. But the bleeding wouldn’t stop, and Jackson ended up surrendering eight runs on 10 hits and two walks in just 3.1 innings. For the Rockies, starting pitcher Josh Outman did not react how you’d want when given a seven-run lead, allowing five in the next frame and finishing the day with only three innings pitched.

Next game: Friday night, 7:35 PM ET at Turner Field. The top two teams in the National League East square off in the opener of a three-game set, Washington’s Ross Detwiler (4-3, 3.09 ERA) facing Atlanta’s Randall Delgado (4-8, 4.52).