There is little room for error for this year's Washington Nationals. Their teams' defense has to be perfect to give their offense a chance to win games. Once again, errors and the long ball plagued the Nationals as they dropped Thursday afternoon's series finale.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Rockies broke the scoring wide open thanks to a three-run home run by Aaron Rodgers put the Rockies up 8-3, and the Nationals were never able to mount a comeback. The Rockies added one more run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Josh Bell had another great afternoon with an RBI double (7) on a line drive to center field. Bell went 4-2 Thursday afternoon, and his average is now an impressive .356. Also checking in with a home run Thursday afternoon was Kiebert Ruiz. At the top of the sixth inning off Chain, Ruiz hit a monster home run with 0 on and 0 outs. The Nationals left nine players on base and went 4-14 with runners in scoring position.
▶️ Top plays: Washington Nationals vs. Colorado Rockies, May 5, 2022
Juan Soto has an impressive .304 batting average with two home runs, walks, and five strikeouts in five games and 25 at-bats during this road trip. Soto also has gone 7 for 23, not bad. Soto added to his total early in the game when he hit a 411-foot home run to right field in the top of the first inning of the game.
Ceasar Hernandez, who is in the middle of a 10-straight game hitting streak, notched another RBI bringing his season total to six with 31 hits at 110 at-bats. The super hot Yadiel Hernandez went 5-2 this afternoon.
The National's pitching staff had another rocky outing. Washington Nationals starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez went 4.1 innings giving up seven runs (sixth of them earned runs), had four strikeouts, walked two, and gave up six hits over 84 pitches.
In his post-game conference with MLB.com, Juan Soto discussed getting picked off at 3B, which could have been the game-tying run that: "I won’t blame anybody, it was me."
The Nationals' record is now 9-18, and they are in fifth place in the NL East. The team will pack its bags for the final leg of this road trip and head to Los Angeles to face the Angels and former Nationals' third baseman Anthony Rendon for a weekend series.