The Washington Nationals grabbed their second straight win Saturday night over the Colorado Rockies, as Stone Garrett led the way with an impressive night. The Nats went into the ninth inning up 7-2, nearly blowing it — but they hung on to put a curly W in the books.
Garrett, hitting at the No. 2 spot as the DH, went 4-for-5 on the day, and was responsible for five of Washington’s seven runs. He started his day off with a double that was 104.8 mph off of the bat in the first inning, before coming through with a three-run homer in the top of the third.
He wasn’t close to finished, however, as he swatted a two-run single into left to give the Nats a 5-0 lead in the fifth, though with two in scoring position following Joey Meneses‘ double, Lane Thomas stranded both with a strikeout to retire the side. Garrett added another double in the seventh before being driven in by Jeimer Candelario‘s RBI single. Garrett finished a triple shy of a cycle in the game.
Washington picked up their final run — what ended up being a much-needed insurance run — in the eighth, as Michael Chavis and Lane Thomas singled before Victor Robles made it 7-2 on a perfectly executed safety squeeze to drive in the final run.
Williams solid across 5 1/3
Trevor Williams was scoreless through four, though Colorado picked up a run off him in the fifth — Harold Castro led off the frame with a single before being driven in Brian Serven‘s two-out double.
Williams would then be pulled in the sixth, as Yonathan Diaz led off the frame with a double and a lineout off the bat of Kris Bryant prompted the entrance of Hunter Harvey to finish out the frame — he grabbed the final two outs in the frame and stranded Diaz at second.
The righty in Williams ended his day allowing two runs on five hits, no walks, and four strikeouts.
Nats nearly blow it, but capture the win
It looked like it was to be smooth sailing, as Mason Thompson (1-2-3 inning) and Kyle Finnegan (1 H, 1 BB) hurled a scoreless seventh and eighth, leaving it up to Anthony Banda in the ninth to protect a five-run lead.
It didn’t go as planned, however, with Banda immediately giving up a leadoff single to Ryan McMahon and serving up a two-run blast to Mike Moustakas to cut Colorado’s deficit to 7-4. He then let Elehuris Montero aboard via a walk on six pitches, which forced manager Dave Martinez to bring on Carl Edwards Jr.
Edwards Jr. wasn’t exactly perfect; he let up a one-out double to Jurickson Profar that was later followed by a two-run single from Elias Diaz to make it a 7-6 ballgame. Edwards then let aboard Daza on a two-out single to put the tying run at second and the winning run at first, but Edwards punched out his former teammate, Kris Bryant, to shut the door.
Nats close out the series tomorrow hoping for taking three out of four games from the Rockies and winning the series.
Sunday @ 3:10 p.m. ET: RHP Chad Kuhl vs. RHP Ryan Feltner
