Colorado Rockies morning after: Two positives from Saturday’s loss

On Saturday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies continued their four-game series in Washington, D.C., against the Nationals. After the Rox took the first two contests on Thursday and Friday, the Nats finally got in the win column with a 6-2 victory on Saturday.

While the Rockies now fall back to .500 at 8-8, there were two positive takeaways from the game in the forms of Charlie Blackmon and Chris Rusin.

BLACKMON RETURNS WITH A BANG

After some tightness in his right quad led the All-Star Blackmon to be day-to-day entering the Nationals series, he was able to be reinserted into the lineup for the Saturday afternoon contest.

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Blackmon wasted no time at all in his return, launching the second pitch he saw in his first plate appearance of the day for a two-run homer to right field over the Nationals scoreboard. Unfortunately, the hit ended up being one of only two for the Rockies on the entire day and the only one allowed by Washington ace Max Scherzer.

RUSIN WORKS OUT OF BIG TROUBLE IN SEVENTH

Rusin was brought into the game in the seventh inning with a runner on first base and no outs. He promptly gave up a single and a walk to load the bases for the Nationals with no outs. However, he was able to get the next batter, Matt Adams, to ground into a rare 4-2-3 double play. With the infield in, DJ LeMahieu fielded the ball at second, threw to Tony Wolters for the force out and home plate, and Wolters was able to throw onto Ian Desmond in time for the double play.

Following that, Rusin induced a popout to end the inning and keep the Nats off the board in the seventh inning.

The Rockies and Nationals will finish their four-game series tomorrow afternoon at 11:35 am (Mountain time) before the Rox move onto Pittsburgh to face the Pirates for a series slated to go Monday through Wednesday. However, the weather forecast is not looking so great in Pittsburgh for the start of the series.

Next: Those were the positives. Here are the negatives from Saturday's loss in D.C.

Rox Pile co-expert Kevin Henry is traveling with the Rockies and will have reports from the final game in Washington on Sunday as well as the entire series in Pittsburgh, including any weather delays and updates. Follow us on Twitter for the latest information.