MLB Game Preview - Colorado at Washington

Wed Jul 24, 2019 7:05 PM EDT

Erick Fedde has bounced around between the majors and minors and has also been a starter and reliever this year.

However, he is scheduled to start for the Washington Nationals in the first game in a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday against the Colorado Rockies. The opener is a makeup from a rainout Monday night.

The Nationals could have used a pitcher from the minors as the 26th man to start the first game, with Patrick Corbin (7-5, 3.40 ERA) going in Game 2.

"We looked at it," Washington manager Dave Martinez said before his team's 11-1 rout of the Rockies on Tuesday. "We wanted Fedde to pitch. That is why we are starting him."

The Rockies will go with Jon Gray (9-7, 4.11 ERA) in the first game and Kyle Freeland (2-7, 7.62) in the second contest.

Why use Fedde (1-1, 3.50) in the first game?

"Just keeping Corbin on schedule," Martinez said of using the lefty in the nightcap.

The Nationals hope that Max Scherzer (inflamed bursa sac below right scapula) can come off the injured list and pitch the series finale Thursday.

Fedde is 0-2 with a 12.38 ERA in two career starts against the Rockies. Gray is an equally unimpressive 0-3, 8.20 in four starts against Washington.

Washington recalled Fedde from Double-A Harrisburg on July 17 for a start against the Orioles at Baltimore. The right-hander turned in his best outing of the season: six innings of one-run, five-hit ball during a no-decision in a game that the Orioles won 9-2.

Corbin has a history with the Rockies, mostly from his days with the Arizona Diamondbacks, producing a 9-4 record with a 4.73 ERA in 22 games (21 starts).

This year, his first with the Nationals, the left-hander beat the Rockies on April 23 in Denver. He gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and a walk with six strikeouts in six innings.

Gray last pitched on July 17 against the visiting San Francisco Giants. In 5 1/3 innings, he gave up a season-high 11 hits, including two homers, and a season-high six runs in an 11-8 loss.

Freeland will make his third start since being recalled from a demotion Triple-A Albuquerque. In both outings since his return -- July 13 vs. the Cincinnati Reds and Friday at the New York Yankees -- he lasted just four innings and gave up five runs.

He is 2-0 with a 3.45 ERA in three career starts against the Nationals.

Before Tuesday's game, the Rockies promoted Yonder Alonso from Triple-A Albuquerque. Alonso was with the Cleveland Indians last year, then was traded to the Chicago White Sox in December. The White Sox released him earlier this month after he hit .178 with seven homers in 67 games, and he subsequently landed a minor league deal with the Rockies.

"When we signed him, the hope was he could bounce back a little bit from the rough go he had this season and see if there's something that in the next couple of months he can help win games," Colorado manager Bud Black said of Alonso.

He began proving his worth Tuesday night when his pinch-hit double in the ninth knocked in the Rockies' only run.

In the series opener Tuesday, Washington's Trea Turner hit for the cycle for the second time in his career against the Rockies, and Stephen Strasburg won his sixth straight start with six scoreless innings.

"We just couldn't get a hit with a man on second; one of the better breaking balls I've seen him have," Black said of Strasburg.

--Field Level Media