Bats go quiet as Nats drop second half of doubleheader (updated)

DENVER – After the chaos of Saturday’s wild slugfest, who would have imagined today’s doubleheader at Coors Field would feature back-to-back pitchers’ duels, with offense at an extreme premium?

The Nationals certainly weren’t counting on that flipping of the script. Even though they leave town with a series victory, they leave feeling a bit of a sting at missing a golden opportunity at a three-game sweep.

Despite getting quality pitching from Brad Lord and their less-reliable relievers, the Nats fell 3-1 to the Rockies in the nightcap of the doubleheader, settling for a Sunday split in the thin air.

The same lineup that exploded for 12 runs on a 45-degree Saturday afternoon managed only four total runs over 18 innings of baseball played under far more pleasant conditions today, held in check by a Colorado pitching staff that has allowed the most runs in the majors this season.

"Obviously, we can't go up there and put up a dozen every night," said first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who managed three of the team's eight singles tonight. "But we'd like to score more, obviously score more than we did tonight because we didn't like the outcome. We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard and obviously didn't perform to that standard in Game 2."

Because of that, the Nationals squandered tonight’s performance from their own pitching staff, led by Lord.

After watching MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin combine for 12 1/3 innings with 22 strikeouts in the series’ first two games, the Nationals knew Lord wasn’t going to match his rotation mates, either in length or whiffs. This being only his third major league start after opening the season in the bullpen, the right-hander was going to be limited.

Lord, though, did pretty much what he’s been doing throughout the month and pitched well enough in the limited time he was out there.

He put five batters on base through his first three innings but managed to avoid any damage thanks to a first-inning strikeout of Zac Veen on a 97 mph fastball and a second-inning grounder induced from Mickey Moniak. But he could not escape the fourth in kind.

With two outs, a runner on first and the Rockies’ No. 9 batter up, Lord seemed to be in good shape. But Aaron Schunk managed to drop a base hit just inside the right field line and turned it into a double. Moments later, Moniak sent a line drive to the gap in left-center, and by the time James Wood was able to track it down near the wall, Moniak had coasted into third base with a two-run triple.

"I made a bad pitch with runners in scoring position," Lord said, "and they made me pay for it."

Lord would depart at inning’s end, having allowed two runs while striking out five on 65 pitches. With Michael Soroka set to go on a rehab assignment this week, Lord may have only one more start on the docket before returning to the bullpen. But he’s pitched well enough to date to consider him for a permanent rotation spot sometime down the road.

"I thought he threw the ball really well," manager Davey Martinez said. "Very poised. I think we have something special in Lord. He goes out there, he wants the ball, he's constantly attacking. He's got a good sense of what he wants to do out there."

Lord left the game in line for the loss because his teammates couldn’t supply enough support, a strange trend during this series. After torching starter Chase Dollander for nine runs in Saturday’s opener, they managed only seven runs off the next 11 Colorado pitchers they faced.

The Nats did take a quick 1-0 lead tonight, getting a leadoff walk from Wood, a productive out from Keibert Ruiz and an RBI single from Lowe. But that’s all they managed off Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela, who didn’t give up another run over his six innings.

Senzatela, to be fair, was helped out by a defense that at times looked awful this weekend but also made several spectacular plays in the field. The best of them may have come from Moniak, who ranged far to his left to rob Dylan Crews of a sure two-run double in the top of the first inning.

And yet a Nationals lineup that mashed four homers Saturday couldn’t even manage an extra-base hit in either of today’s games. Might they have let Coors Field get in their heads?

"Yeah, I definitely fell into that trap myself," Lowe said. "They say you don't want to leave Denver without a homer, and I slapped some singles. Hits are hits; we'll take them wherever they come. But we need to do a better job of playing to our game instead of playing to the surroundings."

The finale remained close, though, thanks to some long-awaited quality work from the bullpen. Colin Poche bounced back from a disastrous Saturday to pitch a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth with a pair of strikeouts. Jackson Rutledge followed Poche out of the 'pen and tossed two scoreless frames to get this one into the eighth with his team still trailing 2-1.

Eduardo Salazar did surrender a tack-on run in the bottom of the eighth, adding to the Nats’ challenge at the plate in the final frame.

"We got to chasing," Martinez said. "And again, not being on time. Late on some balls. We've got to get ready to hit the fastball. But all in all, we come in here and win two out of three. It's been a long day. We get a day off tomorrow and come back and play at home on Tuesday."