Instant analysis: Nats 2, Rockies 1

Associated Press

Stephen Strasburg allowed one run and struck out nine over seven innings.

Game in a nutshell: For five innings, this looked like so many other games we've seen this season. Stephen Strasburg pitched great but made one small mistake that proved costly. The Nationals lineup, meanwhile, was completely shut down by little-known right-hander Tyler Chatwood. Another frustrating night at the ballpark? Well, no. For that, you can thank Ryan Zimmerman (who doubled with two outs in the sixth to drive in the game-tying run) and Ian Desmond (who once again homered to put the Nats ahead late). Drew Storen then came up huge in the eighth, striking out Carlos Gonzalez and Michael Cuddyer in succession to strand the tying run in scoring position. Rafael Soriano closed it out in the ninth — with help from Adam LaRoche, who made a spectacular play at first base to end it — and that secured the Nationals' first three-game winning streak since May 8-10. They're also back over the .500 mark at 37-36.

Hitting highlight: Zimmerman's game-tying double was nice, sure. But how can we not spotlight Desmond, who for the third straight night ignited this offense with a home run. This one was particularly impressive for a couple of reasons: 1) Desmond actually took two balls from Manuel Corpas to begin the at-bat, showing rare patience, and 2) He drove the ball to right-center instead of pulling it to left like he usually does. Those are a couple of great signs of a batter who is locked-in right now.

Pitching highlight: If you want to nitpick, Strasburg did make one mistake in the game. He grazed Josh Rutledge with a pitch to lead off the top of the third, a just-barely hit-by-pitch that set the stage for the Rockies to score their only run off him on D.J. LeMahieu's single to left. Otherwise, Strasburg was fantastic. He didn't walk a batter. He struck out nine. He displayed both a sharp curveball and changeup. And he was fairly efficient (by his standards) with only 95 pitches through seven innings. How come he didn't come back out for the eighth? Assistant trainer Steve Gober did come out to talk to him for a couple of seconds in the seventh inning, so perhaps there's something wrong with him. For the Nationals' sake, hopefully Davey Johnson just decided it was the right time to turn to his bullpen.

Key stat: Anthony Rendon now has 27 hits in 22 games with the Nationals, two more than Danny Espinosa had in 44 games before his demotion to Class AAA.

Up next: Game 3 of this four-game series features Dan Haren, still trying to get himself on track with the Nationals, facing Rockies right-hander Jhoulys Chacin in a rematch of their June 11 encounter at Coors Field, won by Chacin. Note tomorrow's rare 12:05 p.m. first pitch.