Patrick Corbin scattered three hits over six innings as the host Washington Nationals completed a doubleheader sweep with a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.
Yan Gomes belted a solo homer in the seventh inning for Washington, which improved to 36-15 in its past 51 contests and 12-3 in its past 15 at home to move within four games of the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves.
Washington recorded a 3-2 victory over Colorado in the opener of the doubleheader before the Braves dropped a 2-0 decision to the Kansas City Royals a few hours later.
Corbin (8-5) settled down after walking three of the first six batters he faced to retire 15 of his last 17. The 30-year-old finished with seven strikeouts and three walks in a 106-pitch performance.
Both clubs struggled to locate any semblance of offense after a 1-hour, 41-minute rain delay before Washington ignited a two-out rally to open the scoring in the fourth inning.
Brian Dozier ripped a double down the left field line off Kyle Freeland (2-8) before coming around to score when Victor Robles' grounder rolled through the legs of second baseman Garrett Hampson.
Gomes doubled the advantage in the seventh inning, depositing a 3-2 fastball from Jake McGee over the wall in center field. The homer was Gomes' fourth of the season and first since June 21.
The modest offense held up for the Nationals, who saw four relievers combine to allow two hits over the final three innings. Sean Doolittle recorded his second save of the day and 23rd of the season after pitching around a David Dahl double in the ninth inning.
Freeland fell to 0-5 in his past 10 starts despite permitting only one unearned run on four hits in six innings. He was ejected by plate umpire Jon Libka in the seventh inning after his comments from the dugout during teammate Chris Iannetta's at-bat.
The reeling Rockies have lost nine of their past 10 games.
--Field Level Media
Colorado | Washington | |
Kyle Freeland | Player | Patrick Corbin |
Loss | W/L | Win |
6.0 | IP | 6.0 |
4 | Strikeouts | 7 |
4 | Hits | 3 |
0.00 | ERA | 0.00 |
Colorado | Washington | |
David Dahl | Player | Yan Gomes |
1 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 1 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.333 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Colorado | 5 | 0 | 8 | .161 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Washington | 6 | 1 | 12 | .200 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |