Losing streak ends with offensive explosion

It wasn't pretty for a while, but the Nationals finally took advantage of Coors Field to put an end to their six-game losing skid with a lopsided 15-6 win over the Rockies. With the Mets beating the Orioles 5-3, the Nats needed this seesaw battle to tip in their favor just to remain within 4 1/2 games of the lead in the National League East.

"We came out offensively and had a good approach tonight," Nationals manager Matt Williams said to reporters. "This ballpark, you never know. Six (runs) is never safe. So I think we stayed on it and kept adding runs to it, so that's a good sign for us."

Yunel Escobar gave the Nats a charge early with a two-run blast to right-center field in the first.

The lead was short-lived, though as Jose Reyes legged out a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. Moments later, Carlos Gonzalez launched a homer off Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann down the right field line to tie the score. The Rockies added another in the first when All-Star Nolan Arenado doubled down the left field line and then scored on Ian Desmond's 23rd error of the season.

Reyes drilled a solo homer to extend Colorado's lead to 4-2 in the second.

The Nationals responded with two in the third on RBIs from Escobar and Desmond. The duo, batting fourth and fifth respectively, ended up driving in four runs apiece on the night.

Danny Espinosa's second double of the game scored Jayson Werth in the fourth, and some aggressive baserunning from Desmond led to another run on a wild pitch in the fifth.

"We want to take advantage of that if we can," Williams told reporters. "Desi did a nice job on a ball that was right in front of the catcher. He forced a play and was able to get in there. That's the way we gotta play the game if we want to win games."

But the Rockies answered again after an error from Bryce Harper led to a run in the fifth. And then Zimmermann surrendered his third homer of the night when Kyle Parker tied the score with a solo shot to left in the sixth.

Escobar and Ryan Zimmerman drew two of the Nationals' 10 walks of the game in the seventh. That set up Michael A. Taylor's go-ahead two-out RBI single, plating Escobar.

"It's a different ballpark, so you know that runs are gonna happen," Williams told reporters. "The only pitch (Zimmermann) was upset about was the curveball for the homer. It was good that we came back in the top of that inning and went ahead."

The Nationals offense took over from there adding four runs in the eighth and ninth innings each to reach their second highest output of the season. In fact, the 15 runs were three more than the Nats scored over the six-games combined during the losing streak.

"I'm hardly ever really patient at the plate," Desmond said to reporters. "We kinda got a couple breaks. We hit some balls good. We just kept on putting the pressure on them and that's how you win ballgames."