It is game three of a four game series between the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies Saturday night at Coors Field. Currently the two teams have each gotten one win and one team will look to put the other team's back to a wall by pulling ahead in the challenging series.
The Nationals are hoping starting pitcher and workhorse Livan Hernandez (6-10, 4.08 ERA) will be ready to chew rocks and throw smoke as he comes off his first good start in awhile. Against the Atlanta Braves last Monday Hernandez threw six innings of one run ball, a much needed performance after giving up 12 runs in 11 2/3 innings in his two starts before Monday. Hernandez believes it is because he found his sinker again:
"I lost the sinker for like two starts," Hernandez said after his last start. "I worked in the bullpen and tried to fix it. It was working very good today. It was still a little up; Uggla's home run was a sinker up. You can't make a mistake with people like that. If you leave the ball up, you know what happens."
Hernandez will duel with Colorado's Jhoulys Chacin (8-8, 3.38 ERA) at 8:10 p.m. EST.
Nationals Line-Up
1. Rick Ankiel, CF
2. Danny Espinosa, 2B
3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B
4. Michael Morse, 1B
5. Jayson Werth, RF
6. Jonny Gomes, LF
7. Ian Desmond, SS
8. Wilson Ramos, C
9. Livan Hernandez, SP