LeMahieu streak hits 8-for-8 as Rockies beat Nats
DENVER -- DJ LeMahieu continued his offensive surge Tuesday night, Nolan Arenado exacted a small measure of revenge, and David Dahl delivered a key pinch hit as the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals 6-2.
LeMahieu tripled and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth against Yusmeiro Petit (3-3), and he finished a double shy of the cycle. He went 3-for-3 with a walk, giving him eight consecutive hits.
LeMahieu raised his average to .342. He trails only Washington's Daniel Murphy (.348) in the National League batting race. Murphy went 2-for-4.
Dahl capped a three-run seventh with a two-run double. Arenado drove in the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. It came against Blake Treinen, who entered Monday's game to face Arenado and got him to ground into an inning-ending double play with runners on first and second in the seventh and the game tied at 4.
The Rockies ended a four-game losing streak with just their third victory in 13 games. A rain delay of 2 hours, 5 minutes after the third inning ending the outings of starting pitchers, Colorado's Chad Bettis and Washington's Gio Gonzalez.
Chris Rusin (3-4) took over for Bettis when play resumed and worked three scoreless innings.
Adam Ottavino pitched a scoreless ninth and extended his scoreless string to 29 2/3 innings, including 15 innings this season.
Petit allowed one run on three hits in three innings.
The Rockies' rally in the seventh began when Gerardo Parra doubled with one out and Charlie Blackmon walked. Treinen came on and walked LeMahieu to load the bases for Arenado. All three runners moved up on the sacrifice fly to center that made it 4-2, and Dahl's two-out double gave the Rockies a four-run cushion.
Carlos Gonzalez, who was intentionally walked ahead of Dahl, tried to score from first on Dahl's hit but was cut down at the plate.
Boone Logan gave the Rockies a lift when he relieved rookie Matt Carasiti in the seventh. Carasiti, making his second career appearance, began that inning by walking pinch hitter Brian Goodwin. The Rockies were unable to turn a double play on speedy Trea Turner, who grounded to shortstop, and Carasiti then hit Jayson Werth with a 3-2 pitch, the seventh pitch of the at-bat.
Logan got Murphy to fly to left and ended the Nationals' threat by getting Bryce Harper to ground out.
Each team scored twice in the third. Consecutive one-out singles and a passed ball by catcher Nick Hundley put runners on the corners for Washington. Harper drove in a run with a groundout, and Wilson Ramos followed with a long run-scoring single off the wall in right.
LeMahieu tied the game at 2 with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third after Blackmon doubled with one out. The home run was LeMahieu's ninth of the season and his sixth hit in six at-bats.
LeMahieu tripled in the fifth. He scored to give Colorado a 3-2 lead when third baseman Anthony Rendon took a hit away from Arenado with a diving, backhanded stop of a hard grounder.
NOTES: Nationals LF Jayson Werth extended his on-base streak to a team-record 44 games. Ryan Zimmerman reached base safely in 43 consecutive games in 2009. ... Rockies CF Charlie Blackmon doubled in the third inning to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. ... Rockies RHP Tyler Chatwood (mid-back strain) was placed on the 15-disabled list retroactive to Monday, one day after his back bothered him in a start at Philadelphia. RHP Christian Bergman was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. ... Zimmerman (left wrist contusion) played his second consecutive rehab game at Triple-A Syracuse. ... RHP Mat Latos also started Tuesday for Syracuse. Latos made three starts for the Nationals' team in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League to build up strength and fitness after being designated for assignment June 9 by the Chicago White Sox. ... Rockies RHP Justin Miller (left oblique strain) will resume his rehab assignment Thursday with Albuquerque.