Washington Nationals: Trea Turner Tags All Bases Against Rockies

The Washington Nationals secured an 11-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies as shortstop Trea Turner paved the way at the top of the lineup.

The Washington Nationals opened their four-game series against the Colorado Rockies with quite a bang.

Nationals shortstop Trea Turner led off the bottom of the first by smashing a Peter Lambert four-seam fastball 108 miles per hour to left-center field, giving the home team an early 1-0 lead.

Turner touched all four bases while trotting around the infield, but he decided once was not enough.

In the bottom of the second inning, Turner hit a single, deflected by the pitcher, Lambert.  Nothing came of that hit, and the Nationals offense went silent for the next few innings.

Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Turner belted a triple into right field past the sliding Charlie Blackmon, but once again, the offense stalled, and the game remained 1-0.

After scoring one run in the sixth, the Nationals offense exploded for eight runs in the seventh inning, which included a run-scoring double from Turner, completing his cycle.

This is the second time in Turner’s career that he has hit for the cycle, and coincidentally, the first time was also against Colorado.  On April 25, 2017, Turner went 4-6 with 7 RBI in a 15-12 win at Coors Field.

Three players have hit for the cycle in Nationals history, but Turner is the only player to do it twice.  Turner is also the 26th player in MLB history to hit for the cycle multiple times.

Turner wasn’t the only player performing well on Tuesday night.  After all, the team won by ten runs, the fifth time the Nats have won by double-digits in 2019.

Starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg continued his fantastic season by throwing six shutout innings.  He allowed three hits, two walks, and fanned eight Rockies.  His ERA sits at 3.37.

However, the best moment of the entire game came in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Gerardo Parra got Nats Park on its feet and got its hands chomping.  “Baby Shark Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo” rung throughout the stadium, and he ripped a two-run single over the head of Nolan Arenado.

If you haven’t watched the video of the before and after of Parra’s at-bat, click here.  Doo Doo Doo it, you won’t regret it.

Due to the rainout on Monday, the Nats and Rockies will play two on Wednesday.  The first game starts at 1:05 PM ET (Jon Gray vs. Erick Fedde), and the second game starts at 7:05 PM ET(Kyle Freeland vs. Patrick Corbin).