Gomber finding his stride while getting rid of walks

WASHINGTON -- Rockies left-hander Austin Gomber rekindled his fortunes when he eliminated walks.

Gomber extended his streak without a walk to a team-record 27 innings with six innings of one-run ball Tuesday night. But his performance came between delays of one hour and 25 minutes before the game started and 51 minutes in the seventh inning. After the second delay, Gomber’s start -- and many other good deeds -- were washed away by a 6-5 loss at Nationals Park.

Gomber’s mark, which he reached while holding the Nationals to one unearned run, bested the old Rockies record of 23 2/3 innings by Jose Jimenez in 2002. Gomber’s streak also is the fourth-longest in the Majors this season behind 35 innings by the D-backs’ Zac Gallen (April 10-May 8), 32 1/3 by the Mariners’ George Kirby (May 26-June 25) and 30 by the Rays’ Zach Eflin (June 23-July 21).

“Part of that’s probably luck -- 27 innings is a long time,” Gomber said. “I don’t pitch to avoid the walks. I’m attacking, trying to throw strikes.”

A long night became too long when Justin Lawrence, who entered with an eight-game scoreless streak, yielded four runs (three earned) in an eighth inning that featured Joey Meneses’ go-ahead three-run homer. Third baseman Ryan McMahon, who has spent much of the season at the top of the league in several fielding categories, committed the second of his two errors on Tuesday in that frame.

The Rockies still have a chance to end the six-game road trip with a winning record in Wednesday’s series finale.

Since June 30 against the Tigers -- the day he issued his last walk -- Gomber is 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA and 19 strikeouts, four on Tuesday. He left with a 4-1 lead after the in-game rain delay, although at 87 pitches on a humid night he would have left the game regardless.

Gomber’s insistence on keeping his four-pitch mix in the strike zone made up for any rhythm lost when the game’s start was delayed for a predicted storm that didn’t arrive.

“I didn’t think I had my best stuff, but I was in the zone with everything,” Gomber said. “I commanded the fastball to both sides. It wasn’t my best fastball, but it was just getting ahead of guys. The defense -- [rookie shortstop Ezequiel] Tovar, some of the plays he made tonight were incredible.”

The defense helped in the sixth, when the Rockies turned a double play and left fielder Nolan Jones erased Meneses at second, trying to stretch a single. But the best part about that was the Nationals didn’t have to deal with Gomber anymore.

“He was mixing his pitches very well,” Meneses said. “Early on, his fastball definitely had a lot of life to it. He was blowing it by a few of us, as well as jamming us. As the game went along, we were able to make adjustments to the fastball, and that was the difference.”

Tovar homered, and the Rockies had big nights from Elias Díaz (three hits, two RBIs), Randal Grichuk (two hits) and Michael Toglia (RBI double and a single). The game escaped late, but Colorado is 6-4 after the All-Star break.

Before and during the current run of competitive baseball, Gomber remains the team’s most consistent starter. He has gone at least six innings in his past five starts.

“He’s been huge,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We need all those innings. We’re getting to the time of season -- late July, the dog days -- where everybody’s beaten down a little bit. Guys are tired. Bullpen arms are tired.

“You’re looking forward to that last stretch, when the weather cools down in September. But these are tough days for all 30 teams. What Austin is doing is really a breath of fresh air.”