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Nationals blank Rockies behind Bacsik, bullpen

Jul 22, 2007 - 12:52 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- When the Colorado Rockies' Rodrigo Lopez faced off against the Washington Nationals' Mike Bacsik, something had to give.

Bacsik pitched six-plus stellar innings and Felipe Lopez broke a scoreless tie with a solo homer in the sixth inning as the Nationals edged the Rockies, 3-0 on Saturday.

Brian Schneider had two hits and Tony Batista added a two-run pinch hit single in the seventh for Washington, which has won two of three against Colorado after dropping the previous eight vs. the Rockies.

Bacsik (3-6), who had been winless at home, was brilliant, yielding just three hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings.

"I had pretty good fastball-change up command," said Bacsik, who was making his first career start against the Rockies. "Not my best all year, but pretty good, and we then we made some really nice plays in the field."

The lefthander won his first home game of 2007 after being 0-3 with 5.06 ERA in six prior starts at RFK Stadium.

"Mike pitched ahead all day," said Nationals manager Manny Acta, whose squad has won three of their last four games. "He just went out there, strike one, changed speeds. I'm sure they are not very familiar with him. He did an outstanding job."

The Rockies, who still have won four out of six and are 5-4 on their current 10-game road trip, were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

"Bacsik did a good job changing speeds on his fastball, making the pitches when he needed too," said Rockies second baseman and former National Jamey Carroll.

Rodrigo Lopez (5-3), who remained winless on the road, was almost as effective, allowing just two hits through the first 5 1/3 innings.

However, he surrendered Felipe Lopez's fifth homer on the next at-bat and then was charged with two runs in the seventh inning.

"I felt pretty good, I was attacking the strike zone early," Rodrigo Lopez said. "I got a lot of outs early in the count. The last inning I gave up the double and the walk. That was my bad inning."

The righthander gave up a total of three runs, five hits and a walk in six-plus innings.

The seven-year veteran is now 0-3 in six road starts this season and has dropped seven straight road decisions dating to last season, when he pitched for Baltimore.

The 29-year-old Bacsik started the game by surrendering a bunt single to Willy Taveras and a base hit to Jamey Carroll before inducing a double play and a flyout to end the first inning.

"The first inning was a big inning, first and second nobody out," Bacsik said. "(Matt) Holliday hits into a groundball double play there and (Todd) Helton flies out deep. If the ball goes toward the line it's probably a home run."

He allowed a leadoff infield single to Yorvit Torrealba in the third before retiring 13 of the next 14 batters.

After Felipe Lopez belted a one-out homer off Rodrigo Lopez over the right field wall to give Washington a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Bacsik ran into minor trouble in the seventh.

Bacsik walked Helton and Ryan Spilborghs to put runners on first and second with two outs. Acta replaced Bacsik with Luis Ayala, who struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the threat.

"A big out," said Acta of Ayala, who pitched two innings of relief two days ago.

Reliever Saul Rivera pitched a hitless eighth before Chad Cordero came on in the ninth to record his 18th save in 24 opportunities.

Washington gave itself some breathing room in the seventh when, with the bases loaded, pinch hitter Tony Batista hit a two-run single to left field off reliever Jeremy Affeldt to make it 3-0.