{"id":1312777,"date":"2019-07-24T17:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T23:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/rendons-shot-lifts-nats-over-rockies-in-doubleheader-opener\/"},"modified":"2019-07-24T17:00:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T23:00:01","slug":"rendons-shot-lifts-nats-over-rockies-in-doubleheader-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rendons-shot-lifts-nats-over-rockies-in-doubleheader-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Rendon\u2019s shot lifts Nats over Rockies in doubleheader opener"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Washington Nationals’ Anthony Rendon, right, rounds the bases on a solo home run past third base coach Bob Henley in the seventh inning of the first baseball game of a doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies, Wednesday, July 24, 2019, in Washington. Washington won 3-2. (AP Photo\/Patrick Semansky)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Nationals dug a daunting hole for themselves in the first 50 games of the season. Fifty games later, they\u2019re right where they expected to be \u2014 in contention for a playoff berth.<\/p>\n

Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon homered, and the Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday to improve to 35-15 since a 19-31 start. They\u2019ve been the best team in the majors since May 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people wrote us off and saying we need to make moves already, we need to do this, we need to do that,\u201d said Rendon, whose team has won 22 of its last 31 home games. \u201cYou don\u2019t win the division, you don\u2019t win the pennant, whatever you want to call it, in the first 50 games of the season. Or the first 100 games of the season. Anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The matinee was a makeup of Monday\u2019s postponement. Wednesday\u2019s originally scheduled game will be played as the back end of a day-night doubleheader.<\/p>\n

Rendon smacked the first pitch from reliever Carlos Estevez (1-1) just over the wall in left-center for his 21st home run to open the seventh, a shot that was reviewed and upheld.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch him hit, he gets ready to hit,\u201d Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. \u201cOn every pitch, he looks like he\u2019s ready. He might be fooled with a slider, but he gives himself a chance to take a good swing on every pitch. No different today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wander Suero (3-5) worked a scoreless seventh, Fernando Rodney escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth and Sean Doolittle closed it out for his 22nd save in 26 tries.<\/p>\n

Colorado has dropped eight of nine and 15 of 18 to slide seven games under .500 for the first time since April 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to get and stay in contention, because that\u2019s our expectation, and right now it\u2019s not happening, so it\u2019s frustrating,\u201d manager Bud Black said. \u201cI think the best word is frustrating, but it\u2019s not going to take the fight out of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan McMahon gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly off starter Erick Fedde in the fourth and added an RBI single in the sixth. Fedde gave up a run and three hits while striking out two in four innings.<\/p>\n

Rockies starter Jon Gray left after four innings, departing because of the effects of a right calf injury suffered when Brian Dozier\u2019s line drive hit his leg in the second. Washington pushed across its only run against Gray on Gerardo Parra\u2019s bases-loaded walk in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Eaton opened the fifth with a first-pitch homer to right off Chad Bettis.<\/p>\n

Left-hander Kyle Freeland (2-7, 7.62 ERA) will start the nightcap for Colorado, while Washington will counter with lefty Patrick Corbin (7-5, 3.40).<\/p>\n

TRAINER\u2019S ROOM<\/p>\n

Rockies: RHP Yency Almonte, who is 0-0 with a 4.02 ERA in 10 appearances, was added as Colorado\u2019s 26th man for the doubleheader.<\/p>\n

Nationals: Washington summoned INF Adrian Sanchez as its 26th man. Sanchez is hitting .200 (4 for 20) in 18 games with the Nationals this season. . Between games, Washington optioned Fedde to Double-A Harrisburg and recalled C Raudy Read from Triple-A Fresno.<\/p>\n

GRAY\u2019S BLUES<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s injury limited him to his shortest outing of the season, and his five walks were a season high.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was OK for a second,\u201d Gray said. \u201cI had some adrenaline going and pitched OK the next inning. But it got really stiff and I\u2019m pretty sure it was evident. You could probably see I was missing pretty bad glove side.\u201d<\/p>\n

X-rays were negative on Gray, and he said he anticipates making his next start.<\/p>\n

ROOM TO SPREAD OUT<\/p>\n

Washington announced an attendance of 14,628, the smallest crowd to watch a Nationals home game since 14,520 saw the Nationals beat Houston on April 18, 2012.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington Nationals’ Anthony Rendon, right, rounds the bases on a solo home run past third base coach Bob Henley in the seventh inning of the first baseball game of a doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies, Wednesday, July 24, 2019, in Washington. Washington won 3-2. (AP Photo\/Patrick Semansky)AP | AP WASHINGTON \u2014 The Nationals dug a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 06:11:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}