Colorado Rockies: The Rockies on their win against the Nationals

The Colorado Rockies their game on Thursday by a score of 5-1 against the reigning National League East champion Washington Nationals.

Chad Bettis started the game on Thursday for the Rockies against the Nationals and the Rockies won by a score of 5-1. Bettis went seven innings, only allowing three hits, one run (that was earned), two walks, and five strikeouts.

Rockies manager Bud Black talked about his starter’s performance with the media, including our own Kevin Henry, and how it was from a by-gone era.

“[He’s like] a pitcher who pitched in my era,” said Black, who pitched in parts of 15 seasons from 1981 through 1995 with five different teams and in an era where the average fastball was in the 80s for a fastball.

“In my era, you saw a lot more pitchers who really had to change speeds and move the ball around…there wasn’t overpowering velocity and stuff that you see now.”

Black went on to say that pitchers had to mess up hitter’s timing and change location so that it would miss bats. Bettis talked to the media as well, including our own Kevin Henry, and he said that he liked the way that Black described it and he was flattered by it.

“It’s nice to be referred as that…I don’t have the 95 or 97 [mile per hour] fastball anymore, so you have to work around that. Command is a big part of my game and tonight it was good.”

Most of his pitches were under 90 miles per hour yesterday as, in the first inning, when he retired the Nationals in order, only one of 15 pitches hit 90 MPH…and it was 90.6. Total, only 18 of his 94 pitches, or 19.15 percent, were above 90 miles per hour and none of them were higher than 91.

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LeMahieu

DJ LeMahieu also had a great day as he went 4-for-5 with two runs, four RBI, a double, and two home runs. He talked about his performance after the game.

“I feel like I’ve seen Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez have those kind of games plenty of times. So, it was good to have one those for sure,” LeMahieu said. (h/t Joshua Needleman of MLB.com)

Bud Black pretty much said it all about what LeMahieu meant for the Rockies yesterday.

“You could say that he was our offense,” Black said. (h/t Needleman)

LeMahieu also went 3-for-5 with a double in the series finale against the Padres in a game that was an interesting one for the Rockies and Padres both.

Next: Nolan Arenado discusses next steps after the brawl

The suspensions from the melee from that game will probably come down some time today or tomorrow so be sure to check back here for updates on the situation as well as the rest of the series in Washington and in Pittsburgh as we will have coverage from Pittsburgh as well.