Rockies' slide into oblivion continues with 5-4 loss to Nationals

The Colorado Rockies' free fall from relevance in the NL Wild Card race continued in a 5-4 loss to the Washington Nationals on Monday at Coors Field.

The Rockies started quickly, plating three runs in the first inning off of All-Star pitcher Max Scherzer. David Dahl smoked a two-run double to dead center and Daniel Descalso added a sacrifice fly in the frame.

But the Rockies' bats were mostly silenced after that and the Nationals went to work against Jorge De La Rosa, using a homer from Jayson Werth to pull to within a run and later tying the game on another blast by Wilson Ramos. The NL East leaders took the lead for good when Bryce Harper, who entered the game mired in a 10-for-70 second-half slump, laced an RBI double off of Boone Logan.

Harper finished 3-for-3 with two walks. It's true that you can't keep a great player down for long, but it's also very indicative of how things have been going for the Rockies as of late.

De La Rosa pitched well enough to win, allowing four runs in six innings, but the offense plated just one run -- on newly crowned NL Player of the Week Charlie Blackmon's 21st homer of the season -- on eight hits following the outburst in the opening frame.

DJ LeMahieu led the Rockies' offense by going 4-for-4. On the flip side, Nolan Arenado went hitless in four plate appearances and grounded into a key double play with the Rox threatening in the seventh. Arenado is 3-for-22 at the plate over his last six games.

Adam Ottavino worked a scoreless ninth for the Rockies, finishing off his 34th consecutive outing without allowing an earned run. That's a franchise record, according to Rockies PR.

Otto's good work aside, Colorado (56-63) has lost four consecutive games and 10 of 12 overall after climbing above .500 on Aug. 3.