The Rockies had chances Thursday afternoon.
A lot of them.
Colorado drew nine walks, put runners in scoring position throughout the afternoon and repeatedly forced Washington to pitch under pressure. The Rockies did almost nothing with it.
They finished with five hits, went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 13 runners on base in a 7-1 loss to the Nationals at Nationals Park.
Colorado fell to 52-82 and settled for a split of the four-game series, while Washington improved to 63-73. Tom
Cosgrove earned the win to improve to 1-2, while Gabriel Hughes took the loss and fell to 0-6.
Hughes grinds through five
Gabriel Hughes’ final line looked rougher than his stuff did for much of the afternoon.
The rookie right-hander allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks over five innings, striking out three while throwing 54 of his 95 pitches for strikes.
The fastball looked good.
The rest of the arsenal was much less consistent.
Washington scored twice in the first without consistently hitting Hughes hard. CJ Abrams opened with a single, Dylan Crews reached on an infield hit and a wild pitch moved Abrams to third. After Hughes got Andrés Chaparro to pop out, Daylen Lile dropped an RBI single into left before Brady House brought home another run with a sacrifice fly.
Hughes settled in from there, leaning heavily on his fastball while also showing significantly more sinkers than usual. He entered the afternoon using the sinker only about 7% of the time but went to it on 23% of his pitches against Washington.
The second inning provided one of his better escapes.
Jacob Young reached on a fly ball that Ezequiel Tovar lost in the sun, but Zac Veen followed with a tumbling catch in foul territory and quickly got the ball back to the infield to hold Young at second.
Young eventually reached third with two outs, but Hughes went right after Abrams. After showing a curveball in the dirt, Hughes elevated a 94.2 mph four-seamer above the zone and got Abrams to swing through it.
The command kept the outing from becoming efficient.
Hughes walked House in the third, then opened the fourth with consecutive walks to Young and Jorbit Vivas. Washington moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt before Abrams was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Crews then hit a soft ground ball in front of the plate. Brett Sullivan fielded it and made a close throw to first, where Crews was initially ruled safe. Colorado challenged the call and got it overturned. Young scored, but the reversal gave Hughes the second out.
Hughes escaped the inning with only the one run when Veen made another excellent play at the wall in left-center.
Lile provided the hardest damage against Hughes to begin the fifth, driving an 88.8 mph changeup 399 feet for his 18th home run of the season.
Hughes did not unravel.
He got House on a groundout, won a seven-pitch battle with Keibert Ruiz and worked around a soft Young single and stolen base before striking out Vivas after an eight-pitch at-bat to finish his afternoon.
The fastball was Hughes’ clear strength, and the increased sinker usage was an interesting wrinkle. The secondary stuff never gave him the same consistency, while the command forced him to work for nearly every out.
Irvin survives his own messes
Jake Irvin’s afternoon was strange.
The right-hander allowed just one run on three hits over 4.1 innings, but he also walked six, hit a batter and threw 94 pitches. He struck out six and somehow kept Colorado from doing much damage despite putting himself under pressure almost constantly.
Irvin actually threw a first-pitch strike to 70% of the hitters he faced.
The problem came after that.
He repeatedly lost the zone deeper into counts and forced himself to work through traffic.
His pitch mix stayed broad. Irvin leaned most heavily on his four-seamer and curveball, throwing the four-seamer 35% of the time and the curveball 31%. His fastball averaged 92.9 mph, while the curveball sat at 77.8 mph. He also mixed in a changeup, sinker, sweeper and cutter.
Colorado had him in trouble immediately.
Cole Carrigg walked in the first and stole second before T.J. Rumfield and Connor Norby drew two more walks to load the bases with two outs. Troy Johnston grounded out to end the inning.
The Rockies created another opportunity in the second when Veen walked and stole second, but Irvin struck out Tovar and Jake McCarthy to strand him.
The third finally produced a run.
Willi Castro was hit by a pitch, stole second and moved to third after Rumfield walked and Johnston drew another free pass. Sullivan then hit a ground ball up the middle that Vivas reached with a diving stop but could not secure, allowing Castro to score.
Irvin escaped again with only one run allowed when Veen flew out to center.
The curveball remained a major part of the plan, but the Rockies generally did a good job forcing Irvin to bring the ball back into the zone rather than chasing it. The walks kept piling up even as Irvin continued finding enough strikeouts to escape.
He finally worked a clean fourth, retiring Colorado in order.
The Rockies started hitting him harder in the fifth.
Rumfield lined a 103 mph single after an eight-pitch at-bat, and Norby followed with a 103.6 mph single to right to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.
That ended Irvin’s afternoon.
Left-hander Tom Cosgrove replaced him and immediately stopped the threat. Johnston struck out, Sullivan walked to load the bases and Jordan Beck pinch-hit for Veen.
Beck saw three pitches.
He took a sweeper for strike one, swung through a fastball and fouled off another to end the inning.
Colorado made Irvin throw 94 pitches, accepted six walks and a hit batter and repeatedly put runners in scoring position.
The Rockies just never made the mess hurt as much as it should have.
Washington pulls away late
Juan Mejia followed Hughes with a scoreless sixth despite allowing two hits and intentionally walking Lile to load the bases.
Colorado had another chance in the seventh.
Rumfield drew another walk with one out, and Johnston lined a single to right after Norby struck out. Manager Warren Schaeffer sent Hunter Goodman to pinch-hit for Sullivan with two on and two outs, prompting Washington to bring in Clayton Beeter.
Goodman saw one pitch.
Then Ruiz caught Johnston leaning off first and threw behind him to Chaparro for the pickoff.
Inning over.
Goodman never got to swing.
Goodman remained in the game at catcher, while Nick Frasso took over for the bottom of the seventh.
Frasso worked around a leadoff double from Ruiz and a walk to Vivas. He struck out Nasim Nuñez and retired Abrams on a sharp fly ball to right to strand both runners.
Colorado went quietly in the eighth.
Washington did not.
Jimmy Herget retired the first two hitters in the bottom half before the inning came apart.
Lile singled to left, House doubled to right to score him and Ruiz followed by driving a 79 mph sweeper 370 feet to right for a two-run homer.
Three runs had scored with two outs.
Washington led 7-1.
The Rockies put two runners aboard with two outs in the ninth when Castro singled and Rumfield drew another walk, but Norby grounded out to end it.
Final thoughts
This one was about missed opportunities.
The Rockies finished with nine walks and five hits but scored once. They went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13.
They loaded the bases in the first and third, did it again against Cosgrove in the fifth and put two aboard in the seventh before Johnston was picked off.
Irvin walked six hitters and hit another despite throwing first-pitch strikes to 70% of the batters he faced.
Colorado still scored only once against him.
Rumfield was the clearest example of the Rockies controlling the zone. He finished 1-for-1 with four walks and drew nine walks during the four-game series.
Norby extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.
Veen did not record a hit, but his defense mattered. He made the tumbling catch in foul territory, played a hard ball off the wall cleanly to hold Chaparro to a single and later made another strong catch at the wall before being removed for a pinch-hitter.
Hughes had to grind through five innings, but the outing was more complicated than four earned runs suggests. His fastball looked good, his increased sinker usage was worth noting and several early hits came without authoritative contact.
The command and secondary pitches were not consistent enough to make the outing easy.
The same could be said about the game as a whole.
Colorado had plenty of opportunities.
They just did almost nothing with them.
Up next
The Rockies head to Atlanta on Friday to open a series against the Braves at Truist Park, with first pitch scheduled for 5:15 p.m. MDT.
Colorado will send Tomoyuki Sugano to the mound. The right-hander enters 12-7 with a 4.96 ERA and 71 strikeouts.
Atlanta’s starter is still TBD.
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