Washington, D.C. – Matt Holliday rode the stationary bike. Cory Sullivan caught up on some World Cup highlights. Jamey Carroll obliged a presidential motorcade of Washington Nationals beat writers chronicling his return.
There was time for everything Monday afternoon. Batting practice, a normal routine, was scratched because the Nationals’ grounds crew forgot to place a tarp on the field, leaving it soggy from an overnight rain.
No matter. The Rockies required only a few hits, their 4-3 victory propped up on crutches by solid pitching.
The win was significant for two reasons. It marked the first road trip in a month that didn’t begin with the Rockies falling in the opener. It also illustrated a baby step in their growth, the team responding to a heart-in-a-blender loss with maturity.
“I just think this kind of win reinforces the confidence that we have,” closer Brian Fuentes said.
If anyone’s mental state was going to be shaken, it was Fuentes’. He blew the first home save in his career Sunday, dissolving against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Those who make a living pitching the ninth inning gleefully share amnesia as a personality trait. But Fuentes couldn’t help but think about how his previous outing played out as he ran laps around RFK Stadium four hours before the first pitch.
Russ Martin triggered Sunday’s damage with a base hit to left field – on a changeup. Fuentes vowed to change that Monday, attacking the strike zone more with his 90 mph fastball. Given a two-run lead, he wasn’t about to walk Jose Guillen. He homered. Fuentes never wavered. He attacked Marlon Byrd, who smoked a shot down the left-field line that narrowly missed being a home run. Instead, it bounced off the wall, just a couple of feet inside foul territory.
“I was surprised it was that close,” said Fuentes, who planned to tell pitching coach Bob Apodaca he wants to close the game tonight – the team normally doesn’t let a reliever throw four consecutive days – if the opportunity arises. “It was a relief.”
On the next pitch, Fuentes induced a groundball out to shortstop Clint Barmes, leaving the last-place Rockies just four games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the congested National League West.
Progress is possible when a team doesn’t have a mound of trouble. The Rockies rank 13th in ERA. Not in the NL. In baseball.
Jeff Francis is an accomplice to that statistic, having allowed three or fewer earned runs in nine of his past 10 starts.
Francis fell behind 2-0, a misstep that provided a stage to demonstrate his cool personality.
Against a Nationals team that had won 17 of its previous 24 games, Francis settled down. He yielded just two hits over his final five innings, excellence validated by the Rockies’ late rally that included RBI singles from JD Closser and Todd Helton.
“Jeff studies; he’s prepared,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He doesn’t get too high or too low.”
As the Rockies left for the team bus, the tarp covered the field. It might as well have been a wet blanket.
“These are the kind of games you need to win,” Hurdle said, “if we are going to take that next step.”
Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
