Coors Field always has been a hitter-friendly park, and the Washington Nationals have helped continue that narrative.

After belting five homers over the first two contests against the Colorado Rockies, the Nationals will look to do more damage in the finale of a three-game series on Wednesday afternoon in Denver.

The Nationals will send Cade Cavalli (6-4, 3.78 ERA) to the mound against Colorado rookie Gabriel Hughes (0-1, 3.14) in a matchup of right-handers.

Cavalli allowed two runs on four hits and struck out nine batters over six innings in a 23-4 romp over the Athletics on Friday.

He will face the Rockies for the first time in his career. Cavalli will try to pitch the Nationals to a series victory after Colorado’s 8-7 win Tuesday night.

Washington’s offense is rolling of late and has surged to the top of the major leagues in several categories. The Nationals, who are in fourth place in the National League East at 51-51, are first in the majors in runs (559), home runs (149), RBIs (533) and stolen bases (111).

“A lot of it’s just going about their business the same way and not trying to do anything differently,” manager Blake Butera said Monday. “I think sometimes when you worry about that a little bit, it can change your approach — especially offensively — if you’re trying to get the ball in the air maybe a little bit more because you know that the ball is flying better. So we’re just trying to make sure these guys stay true to their plans.”

The Rockies have power, too, led by Hunter Goodman, who gave them the win with his solo shot in the eighth inning on Tuesday night. He tied his career high of 31 homers, set last season, and has four over the last three games after a 10-game drought.

With the Nationals’ scoring at a high rate, putting up runs is key for Colorado, something Goodman knew heading into the series.

“They have a really good offense, they’ve been doing it all year, but so have we,” Goodman said after Tuesday night’s win. “We knew it was going to be one of those series where we’re just fighting the whole time. It’s the same approach we take every day: We’re never out of the game; we’re always in it.”

Hughes, who has never faced Washington, will make his fourth career appearance and third start. He made his major league debut against San Francisco on July 3 with three scoreless innings, and his first big-league start came at the Los Angeles Dodgers five days later.

He pitched well against the reigning World Series champions, allowing three runs over six innings, and took the loss in his next start, against Cincinnati. He gave up two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a 7-2 defeat to the Reds.

Hughes, the 10th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, is averaging nearly a strikeout per inning (14 over 14 1/3 frames).

–Field Level Media

The Arizona Diamondbacks enjoyed their best game of the season at the plate as they thumped the visiting Athletics 15-5 on Wednesday to claim the rubber match of their three-game series in Phoenix.

Each of the starters in the lineup reached base, and nine Diamondbacks batters registered hits as the team posted season highs in runs, hits (17) and home runs (five).

Arizona also celebrated milestones as catcher James McCann (3-for-4, 3 RBIs) hit his 100th career homer in the fifth inning just two batters before rookie Ryan Waldschmidt (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) cracked his first. Gabriel Moreno hit a solo homer to cap the Diamondbacks’ seven-run fifth.

Ildemaro Vargas also finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI before closing the rout on the mound by allowing two runs in the ninth.

Corbin Carroll (2-for-4) homered and hit his MLB-best 11th triple. Tim Tawa (2-for-5) doubled and brought home a pair while Ketel Marte (2-for-4) doubled and scored. Nolan Arenado homered during his only official at-bat and scored three times while drawing three walks.

Merrill Kelly (8-8) was the beneficiary of this outburst as he went five innings and gave up two runs on five hits and a walk. He allowed a solo homer to the Athletics’ Jeff McNeil (2-for-4) in the fifth that tied the game at 2 after Carroll and Arenado put Arizona ahead with solo shots in the fourth.

It was all Arizona from there as the team clinched its eighth win in the last 10 games by scoring seven times in the fifth and five in the six.

The Athletics dropped to 2-13 in their last 15 as starter Gage Jump (3-6) gave up six runs in 4 2/3 innings on eight hits and four walks. He struck out five but also gave up three homers.

Reliever Yunior Tur, pitching in his second major league game, allowed eight runs on five hits and three walks in just 2/3 of an inning. He gave up the homers to McCann and Waldschmidt that made it 9-2 after five.

–Field Level Media

JJ Wetherholt hit a home run and four St. Louis pitchers combined on a seven-hitter as the Cardinals blanked the Los Angeles Angels 1-0 to salvage the final game of their three-game series on Wednesday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.

Hunter Dobbins (2-1) picked up the victory, allowing six hits over six innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five to pick up his sixth career major league win.

Luis Gastelum, George Soriano and All-Star closer Riley O’Brien each pitched a scoreless inning of relief after that with O’Brien notching his 26th save.

The win, just the fifth in the last 15 games for the Cardinals, snapped a season-high matching four-game losing streak for St. Louis. It marked the first time since May 17, 2025 at Kansas City that the Cardinals won a 1-0 game.

Wade Meckler and Josh Lowe each had two hits for Los Angeles, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Reid Detmers (3-7) was the hard-luck loser, giving up one run on two hits over 5 1/3 innings. It marked his 19th straight start at Angel Stadium without picking up a win dating back to 2024.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning on Wetherholt’s 15th home run of the season, a 409-foot drive to left-center.

Los Angeles had multiple runners on base in four different innings, including the bottom of the ninth against O’Brien. Jo Adell and Meckler both walked with one out but O’Brien bounced back to strike out Oswald Peraza and Josh Lowe to get out of the jam.

St. Louis had blown six leads in its 10 losses over a 15-game stretch, including back-to-back walk-off losses at Arizona on Sunday and to the Angels on Monday night when O’Brien hit Adell with a pitch with the bases loaded. That snapped a streak of 106 games that the Angels had lost when trailing after eight innings, including 48 this season.

–Field Level Media