Denver, CO – Adam LaRoche hit two homers and drove in three runs Tuesday night and the Washington Nationals routed the Colorado Rockies, 12-5.
Tyler Moore had a three-run homer, Ryan Zimmerman added a solo shot among his three hits and Michael Morse and Ian Desmond both went 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI as the Nats scored more runs than in any other game since Davey Johnson was hired as their manager a year ago.
They had 21 hits, matching a high since they moved to Washington, and set a new franchise record for extra-base hits with 11.
"My hitting coach is a genius," Johnson joked. "What can I say."
The win moved the Nationals to 2-3 on a 10-game road trip.
Dexter Fowler and Jonathan Herrerra hit solo homers for the Rockies, who fell to 4-15 since June 5. They had won the opener of the four-game series 4-2 on Monday.
Gio Gonzalez (10-3) became the fourth National League pitcher with at least 10 wins despite giving up five runs -- four earned -- in six innings. He yielded eight hits and a walk while striking out seven and had an RBI single.
Rockies starter Christian Friedrich (4-5) came out with one down in the fifth inning after 70 pitches.
"He pitched a lot better than his numbers indicated for the time that he was out there," said Rockies manager Jim Tracy, who continues to hold his starters to a 75-pitch limit in a four-man rotation.
Friedrich gave up four runs on nine hits and the Nats scored five runs off reliever Guillermo Moscoso in the inning.
The Nationals scored all their runs between the second and sixth innings. They took a 1-0 lead on LaRoche's first homer of the game in the second inning and went up 3-0 in the third on Morse's two-run double.
Colorado came back to tie it with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third. Jordan Pacheco singled and scored on Carlos Gonzalez's double for the first run and Michael Cuddyer walked. Both runners scored on Todd Helton's single to center -- Cuddyer when Bryce Harper sailed a throw wide to home plate.
Gonzalez helped his own cause with an RBI single in the fourth that scored Jesus Flores, who had doubled with two outs, and the Nationals pushed their lead to 9-3 with a five-run fifth.
Friedrich retired Harper on a fly ball to start the inning but was relieved by Moscoso.
Zimmerman and Morse then started the rally with back-to-back singles -- it was Zimmerman's 1,000th career hit -- and LaRoche walked. Desmond knocked in two with a double off the left field wall and Moore launched a three-run shot, his third of the season, also to left.
Fowler homered on Gonzalez's second pitch of the bottom of the fifth, his 10th, but Zimmerman launched his fourth of the season in the sixth and LaRoche homered again two batters later off Moscoso, a two-run blast that made it 12-4.
Herrera's third homer of the season off Gonzalez in the bottom of the sixth ended the scoring.
Game Notes
Rockies middle infielder Marco Scutaro was out for precautionary reasons after getting hit in the head by a Stephen Strasburg fastball in the sixth inning of Monday's game...Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca was reassigned within the organization Tuesday per his own request and is now a special assistant to general manager Dan O'Dowd. In his place, the Rockies named bullpen coach Jim Wright and Triple-A Colorado Springs pitching coach Bo McLaughlin co-pitching coaches...Mark DeRosa played for the first time since April 27 and hit a ground-rule double in the ninth for the Nationals. DeRosa was activated off the 15-day disabled list Monday after being out with a strained left oblique....Friedrich has lost four straight starts.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.