TEAMMATES TEASE BLACKMON AFTER HISTORIC HIT

Charlie Blackmon’s third single Wednesday, a rope to right field off the Marlins’ sixth reliever, turned into a career collectible. After Carlos Gonzalez trotted home, Blackmon’s hit produced his 100th RBI. Then the fun started.

The Marlins politely tossed the baseball to the Colorado dugout for Blackmon to save. Gerardo Parra grabbed it, then appeared to throw it into the stands to a fan. Vinny Castilla cracked up laughing. The souvenir was lost forever — or so it seemed.

But Parra played a practical joke. A dugout hidden ball trick. He switched the souvenir for a yellow squeeze ball. Blackmon’s baseball was safe. Parra gave the fan a real baseball in trade for the yellow squeeze ball.

The final joke, though, was Blackmon’s.

“I didn’t see it,” Blackmon said. “I guess I’ll check it out on the web?”

Blackmon finished 3-for-6, his 66th multihit game this season, tying Dante Bichette for most in club history. Blackmon has 208 hits, sixth-most in Colorado history. His 99 RBIs from the leadoff spot — he has one from the No. 3 spot in the order — are tied with Alfonso Soriano from 2002 for second-most in baseball history, one behind Darin Erstad’s record from 2000.

“We’ll look back this season as a really big year for a really good player,” Colorado manager Bud Black said.

Blackmon in the second inning slid head-first into first base to beat out an infield single to score Gonzalez. Blackmon leads the National League in runs scored (136), hits (208), triples (14) and batting average (.328).

“If you’re going to try to be on a good team, you want to be a guy that tries hard,” Blackmon said. “I don’t think guys that don’t try hard end up as many good teams.”

Stanton struggles.

Black previewed a three-game series against the Marlins by saying Monday that the Rockies had a specific plan to shut down slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who came into this series with 57 home runs. He would not detail that plan then, nor on Wednesday.

But Colorado held Stanton down, as he hit just 1-for-12 with a double and four strikeouts. Rockies right-hander Jon Gray struck out Stanton three times.

Footnotes.

The Dodgers swapped pitching assignments for a three-game series at Coors Field starting Friday, moving ace Clayton Kershaw to Saturday and announcing Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Friday. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts wants to put Kershaw closer to the NL division series starting Oct. 6, allowing him just one extra day of rest between series. … The Rockies and Dodgers have not announced their starters for Sunday, instead waiting to determine the importance of the outcome. — Nick Groke, The Denver Post