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Washington Nationals: Trea Turner shines again at Coors Field

By Blake Finney

DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 29: Trea Turner #7 of the Washington Nationals watches the flight of a second inning two-run homerun against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on September 29, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 29: Trea Turner #7 of the Washington Nationals watches the flight of a second inning two-run homerun against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on September 29, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /
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The Washington Nationals pulled out a 12-2 victory on Saturday that makes the NL playoff picture very interesting, while shortstop Trea Turner was the star

Trea Turner loves playing at Coors Field, although to be fair, who wouldn’t. The Washington Nationals shortstop continued his success there with a monster showing in Saturday’s penultimate game of the season to guide his team to a win.

He finished the game 3 for 6 with 3 RBIs and two runs, as his average climbed up to .271 on the year. Two of those RBIs came on a towering home run deep left field that put the Nats 5-0 up in the second inning.

You’ll remember one of the highlights of last season was when Turner hit for the cycle in the very same ballpark, and tonight just added to his impressive Coors resume. He’s now hitting .413 nine games there with three homers and 17 RBI and an OPS way north of 1.200.

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The Nats shortstop can finish the season on a positive note while in the middle of a sizzling hot streak. He’s been one of the team’s best hitters in September with a solid .279/.380/.441 slash line to go with three homers and nine steals.

Bud Black will definitely be circling Trea Turner as a dangerous hitter during tomorrow’s season finale. The Rockies can’t afford to make the same mistakes with the NL West on the line on Sunday.

Stras finishes his 2018 season strong

Aside from all the offensive production, Nats starter Stephen Strasburg managed to put in a strong showing in his final start of 2018. Now he will hope to carry over that over into the 2019 campaign.

He ended up with six innings of work while giving up five hits, two walks and two runs with seven strikeouts. We also saw the velocity take a little while to come back, just like previous starts where he sat in the low-90s to begin with, before getting back into the mid-90s.

Strasburg had a strong finish to the season, which has been a constant theme so far through his career. In regular season games during September and October, his ERA is now 1.88 to go with a 16-3 record. With the offseason ahead, it’s time for the right-hander to heal up and aim to get healthy for next season.

Fedde draws start over Max

In a surprising twist, Nats manager Davey Martinez revealed after the Saturday’s game that Erick Fedde will start on Sunday. With the Rockies having top of the NL West to play for, most thought Max Scherzer would get the start, but that’s not the case.

This means that Scherzer won’t have one final chance to make his case to win the NL Cy Young for a third straight season. He only trails Jacob deGrom by 0.4 in bWAR and averages around 0.3 per start, so a strong effort could’ve seen him leapfrog the Mets ace.

Instead, the Nationals get one last look at Fedde who is coming off of a poor start against the New York Mets. Pitching in Colorado in a big game won’t be an easy assignment, but if he impresses it will increase his chances of winning a rotation spot next year.

Next. Harper or Rendon a higher priority?. dark

Sunday will be the final time the Washington Nationals play this year, even though at the start of the year, they hoped to go further. The team has a big offseason ahead after one last ride together.

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