WASHINGTON -- After being held to just six runs in their previous four games and being no-hit through four innings of their series opener against the Rockies on Monday, the Nationals weren’t looking for style points as they came to bat in the fifth inning with a 2-0 deficit.
They needed runs. They eventually came mostly via small ball -- an infield single, a bloop single, a sac bunt, a two-base throwing error, two doubles, two stolen bases and another error. When the dust settled, the anemic-of-late Nationals offense scored five times in the frame en route to an eventual 13-3 win.
In his return to the lineup after a four-game absence, CJ Abrams drove in the go-ahead run with a double down the right-field line with none out in the fifth. Abrams finished 1-for-4 with a walk, two stolen bases, two runs scored and his team-leading 92nd RBI.
Among the Nationals’ offensive catalysts for much of the season, Abrams’ return from a sprained ankle was a welcome boost for the Majors’ highest-scoring team, which has been a shell of its former self for much of August.
The five-run fifth against Colorado, though, got the Nationals going with three more runs coming in the sixth via a bases-loaded walk and a two-run single from Daylen Lile. Jorbit Vivas, who picked up three hits in a three-inning stretch, delivered a two-run single in the seventh. Lile then capped off a 3-for-5 night with a three-run homer in the eighth.