Colorado @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 20, 2010 ) Colorado 10, Washington 4

The good news for the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night was that they scored eight runs in the third inning to help them roll to a 10-4 victory over the Washington Nationals. The bad news is that they stretched their bullpen again. Colorado manager Jim Tracy has been worried that he’s had to use his relief pitchers a lot in recent days. He’s looking to receive a better performance from starter Jason Hammel on Wedneday in an effort of taking some pressure off the bullpen. Thursday afternoon’s starter is Ubaldo Jimenez, and the Rockies are pretty sure they’ll get some good work from him. Jimenez threw a no-hitter last Saturday against the Atlanta Braves and is developing into one of baseball’s best pitchers. He is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA this season, and the bullpen often relaxes when he pitches. Tracy used four relief pitchers in Tuesday's game to go four innings, two of whom also threw Monday night in the team's 5-2 loss to Washington. The big question is if he can get through Wednesday’s game without taxing the bullpen too much. The Rockies also want to hit well like they did in this game. They’ve struggled before this, scoring only six runs in their last two games, but they banged out 14 hits overall and scored 10 runs in the first three innings. Washington, meanwhile, continues to look for consistent starting pitching. Scott Olsen threw well in his first start last weekend, but couldn’t make it out of the third inning in Tuesday’s game. He gave up six runs on seven hits. The Nationals rarely have gotten a pitcher to get past five innings in the first three weeks of the season. Their bullpen’s strong work and timely hitting are the main reasons Washington is 7-7 so far. If the Nationals could find any kind of consistent starting pitching, their fortunes would be even betteer. Craig Stammen gave Washington eight good innings in Monday’s game, but the Rockies helped the cause by often swinging at bad pitches or early in the count. The Nationals will now send out John Lannan on Wednesday followed by Livan Hernandez Thursday, the two starters who’ve been consistent so far. Lannan has improved in each of his starts. He threw seven strong innings in his last outing versus the Milwaukee Brewers after going five innings against the Philadelphia Phillies before that. Can he keep getting better while pitching as the team’s No. 1 starter?