Washington Nationals’ lineup for 2nd of 3 with the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field

Before the series opener with the Colorado Rockies last night in Coors Field, Washington Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked about continuing to play out the regular season after the Nats have been eliminated from contention.

“We want to play,” the first-year skipper said, “and like I told these guys, and I’ve said it from the beginning, we want to win, and we want to win out, and they’ve been playing really well, so nothing changes. We’re going to go out there today and compete and try to win today.”

Martinez’s squad is 14-11 after last night’s loss, their first winning month since the Nationals went 20-7 in May.

Finishing strong, Martinez explained, is what has been important to him and his players, with two games remaining in a disappointing season for everyone in the nation’s capital.

“For me it was just going out and competing,” he said.

“I just try to play the game hard. I know teams that I played on we just tried to finish out the season and finish out strong and play hard.

“If you love the game of baseball you just want to go out there and play and do good. No matter what the circumstances are, you want to win.”

They lost last night, of course, with a number of missed opportunities, going 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position and 10 left on base in a 5-2 win for the Rockies.

“This game could have been a lot different if we’d have had one or two key hits,” Martinez said, repeating a familiar refrain from the 2018 campaign, “but you know we did a good job of trying to get [Kyle Freeland] to get the ball up, and that was the whole game plan, just got the ball up and out over the plate. A couple times we had bases loaded, couldn’t score any runs. We had leadoff hitters on, couldn’t get nothing going. They actually got big runs. We had our chances, we just couldn’t capitalize.”

Maybe the Nationals will capitalize on their opportunities in tonight’s matchup in Coors Field (after the Rockies did a bit of celebrating last night).

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE 2ND OF 3 WITH THE ROCKIES: