Luis Garcia Jr. homered, Cade Cavalli tossed six strong innings, and the Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 8-0 in the rubber game of the series in Denver on Wednesday.
Cavalli (7-4), making his second start since serving a five-game suspension, scattered four hits, walked a pair and struck out eight in his six innings.
CJ Abrams had four hits and Jorbit Vivas, Nasim Nunez, Dylan Crews and Jose Tena finished with two each for Washington. The Nationals, who entered the afternoon leading the majors in runs, RBIs and home runs, have scored seven or more runs in four of their last five games.
Jake McCarthy doubled to extend his on-base streak to 17 games and Kyle Karros singled and walked twice for Colorado, which finished 2-4 on its homestand. The Rockies committed three errors that resulted in two unearned runs.
Colorado starter Gabriel Hughes (0-2), making his second career start at Coors Field and fourth overall major league appearance, was locked in a pitching duel with Cavalli. Hughes struck out five through four shutout innings before the Nationals got to him to start the fifth.
Vivas led off the inning with a triple off the wall in right and James Wood drove him home with a hit a sacrifice fly.
Washington broke it open in the seventh against reliever Jimmy Herget. Daylen Liles led off with a walk, went to second on a groundout and Vivas walked. Nunez singled to left to bring home Liles, and Vivas came home when the ball rolled under Mickey Moniak’s glove for an error.
One out later, Garcia blasted his 21st homer of the season into the Nationals’ bullpen to make it 5-0.
Zach Agnos relieved Herget and gave up consecutive singles to Tena and Abrams. Crews followed with another single to drive in Tena, and two throwing errors on the play allowed Abrams to score.
Washington added to its lead in the eighth. Keiber Ruiz led off with a double, Vivas singled and Nunez followed with an RBI single.
