With their season nearing the brink, the Rockies’ big three broke down.
Three times this week, the Rockies put their best pitchers on the mound. Three times the Washington Nationals knocked their socks off — Charlie Brown style.
Today, the Nationals, owners of the major’s worst record, swept the Rockies in a double header at Coors Field.
In their 6-3 victory in Game 2, the Nationals pounded Ubaldo Jimenez for six runs in just five innings. Jimenez, so brilliant in July (5-1, 1.74 ERA), gave up eight hits and walked six.
Earlier today, Washington spoiled Jeff Francis’ comeback, slugging two homers off him en route to a 6-3 win.
Monday night, the Nationals, the weakest-hitting team in the National League with a .244 average, shelled all-star Aaron Cook, winning 9-4.
Manager Clint Hurdle has lined up his rotation so that Francis, Jimenez and Cook would face the National League West-leading Diamondbacks Aug. 12-14 at Coors Field. But that series, once thought to be so crucial to the Rockies’ faint playoff hopes, has lost its luster. The Rockies, 13-games under .500, fell 8-1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks, who are scheduled to host Atlanta later tonight. The Rockies have just 45 games left in the season to make up a lot of ground.
It wasn’t just the Rockies’ starters that under-performed in the series. The offense was tepid, too.
Garrett Atkins powered a two-run homer into the left-field bleachers in the first inning of Game 2, but that was all the Rockies could muster until Atkins drove in Matt Holliday with a single in the seventh.
In Game 1, Francis’ much-anticipated comeback from the disabled listed turned into a setback. Francis pitched well for four innings, but watched Washington center fielder Lastings Milledge crash the party in the fifth.
Milledge crushed a full-count fastball onto the left-field concourse in the Nationals’ three-run inning. He added a two-run blast in the sixth, extending the Nationals’ lead to 5-0.
Making his first appearance since June 28 after landing on the DL with a sore shoulder, Francis left his fastball up in the zone, something that’s become a reoccurring theme this season. He’s given up 19 homers, most on the club.
“He was flowing to the glove and making good pitches early, then his fastball command changed,” Hurdle said during the short break between the games. “You have to pitch more than four (good) innings.”
Asked if he thinks Francis’ has lost velocity on his fastball, Hurdle said, “I think we just need to let this play its way through before we start try to figure out what we are seeing.”
The Rockies finally got on the board in the eighth when Holliday hit a solo homer to deep center field, his 22nd homer of the season. Catcher Yorvit Torrealba belted a two-run home run in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
