Washington Nationals Series Preview: Nats at Rockies (8/18-8/20)
By Ricky Keeler
Mandatory Credit: Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports
It has been a difficult road trip, to say the least, for the Washington Nationals (58-59). This past weekend, the Nats were swept at AT&T Park against the San Francisco Giants. While Bryce Harper hit his 30th home run of the season on Friday, the Nats offense was not able to come back in that game as Max Scherzer had the shortest outing of his season (three innings).
The series culminated on Sunday when Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner struck out 14 batters, threw a complete game three-hit shutout, and went 2-for-3 with a double and a home run. The Nationals are 1-6 on this West Coast trip and have been shutout three times in their last six games. Fortunately, they remain 4.5 games back of the Mets in the NL East after the Mets were swept at Citi Field this past weekend against the Pirates.
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To end this ten game road trip, the Nationals are in Coors Field to take on the Colorado Rockies (48-68) for a three game series, which begins tonight. Before the Nats went out west, the Rockies took two out of three games at Nats Park from August 7-9. Nats’ setup man Drew Storen gave up six runs in the two games he pitched (both losses).
For the Rockies, the player to watch in this series is left fielder Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez is hitting .304 since the All-Star Break with 14 home runs and 32 RBI’s. He went 4-for-12 in the Nats’ series with three home runs and six RBI’s.
While Colorado did win that series against Washington, the Nationals may be catching them at the right time. Walt Weiss’ club had lost six straight games before shutting out the Padres, 5-0 on Sunday. If there were a series where you think the Nats would get back on track, this would be it.
Let’s take a look at who has the edge in each of the three pitching matchups in this series:
Next: Tonight's Matchup