Washington gets to Kyle Freeland early, takes down Rockies

CJ Abrams homered for the second straight game, one of three home runs for Washington, and the Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 7-3 in Denver on Monday night.

Jacob Young also went deep and finished with three hits, Curtis Mead contributed three hits, and Andres Chaparro hit his fourth home run for Washington, which has won two in a row and leads majors with 147 homers.

Riley Cornelio (1-1) tossed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and Tom Cosgrove got the final six outs for his first save.

Jake McCarthy led Colorado with a pair of hits. The Rockies, who have dropped three of their first four out of the All-Star break, have the worst record in the National League.

The Nationals jumped on Colorado starter Kyle Freeland. James Wood drew a walk to lead off the game, Mead followed with a single to center and Chaparro hit the first pitch he saw from Freeland into the seats in left-center field.

Washington threatened for more in the first when Dylan Crews walked and Young singled with one out, but Freeland retired the next two batters to end the frame.

The Rockies loaded the bases in the third with two singles and a walk against Washington starter Andrew Alvarez, and Castro cleared them with a two-out double to center to tie it 3-3.

Alvarez allowed three runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings.

Tempers flared in the fifth. Chaparro flew out to right field and on his trot back to the dugout ran over part of the mound, drawing the ire of Freeland. Benches and bullpens cleared but the incident didn't escalate and no one was ejected.

Young broke the tie in the sixth inning when he led off against Freeland with his ninth home run. Abrams extended the lead in seventh when he hit a two-run shot off Antonio Senzatela, his 22nd homer of the season.

Freeland (2-9) gave up four runs on seven hits in his six innings of work.

The Nationals tacked on a run in the ninth with Daylen Lile's two-out RBI triple.

--Field Level Media