A BIG HIT WITH THE FANS
Pitcher helps Colorado move past Dodgers into NL West lead
Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon is mobbed for autographs at Coors Field. Righthander German Marquez tied a modern bigleague record with eight consecutive strikeouts to begin Wednesday night’s game, a 140 victory against Philadelphia. »
German Marquez struck out the first eight batters he faced Wednesday night at Coors Field.
But Marquez, and the Rockies, were just getting started.
By the time their 140 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies was complete, strikeouts, history, four home runs and mounting playoff expectations had converged to create a per fect baseball storm in LoDo.
Marquez, a 23yearold righthander, not only set a franchise record for strikeouts to begin a game, he tied a modernday majorleague record. What’s more, by the time Marquez’s seven scoreless innings were in the books, he had fanned 11, setting a franchise record for strikeouts in a season with 221. Righthander Ubaldo Jimenez held the old record of 214, set in 2010. Jimenez finished third in the NL Cy Young Award voting that season.
“He came out hot and he was spinning the (crud) out of his curveball,” catcher Tony Wolters said of Marquez’s stuff. “He did a great job and mixed his pitches. He came out in the second inning and started pitching a little backward. His fastball was good tonight, too. He didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal, that’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, players in the home dugout, as well as the 35,181 fans in attendance, had only to look at the manual scoreboard in right field to see that Milwaukee beat St. Louis 21, moving the Rockies 1K games in front of the Cardinals for the National League’s second wildcard playoff berth. The Cardinals have just three games remaining; the Rockies have four.
Then it got even better. The Rockies, winners of six straight and searching for their first division title, overtook the Dodgers for the NL West lead when Los Angeles lost 72 at Arizona.
Marquez seemed to take his historic
night in stride.
“I didn’t know about eight (straight) as a record,” he said. “I knew I had to get five to get the (season) record, but I didn’t go into the game looking for that.”
Said Rockies manager Bud Black: “It’s tremendous to see a guy work so diligently, and be a great student, and put these teachings into play, between the lines. Not only during the games that he plays, but the side work and the video sessions . ... It’s been fabulous to watch. I’m very proud of him.”
While Marquez (1410, 3.76 ERA) stole the spotlight Wednesday night, Colorado’s offense pounded Philadelphia pitching for the third consecutive game, banging out 16 hits.
Colorado hit three home runs in its sevenrun fifth inning to take a 90 lead. The twoout onslaught began with David Dahl’s 412foot autumn moon shot to center, his third home run in three games. After a Nolan Arenado single, Trevor Story rocketed a 465foot home run to left, his 34th of the season. After a Carlos Gonzalez hustle double, Ian Desmond smacked a tworun homer 438 feet, his 21st of the season.
Reserve catcher Drew Butera added a tworun homer in the ninth.
Marquez entered the night with 210 strikeouts, tied with Pedro Ast acio (1999) for second in franchise history. But Marquez quickly made history, striking out, in order: Cesar Hernandez, Carlos Santana, Odubel Herrera, Rhys Hoskins, Roman Quinn and Dylan Cozens.
Recordbreaker No. 215, coming against Quinn, was an 84 mph curveball on a 12 count.
“I believe the key was the aggressiveness when I was throwing (the curveball),” Marquez said. “It was biting maybe a little bit more than usual, but the aggressiveness was the key.”
Marquez’s eight strikeouts to open a game placed him in the company of Houston’s Jim Deshaies, who did it on Sept. 23, 1986, against the Dodgers, and the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, who set down the first eight Marlins he faced on Sept. 15, 2014.
“I thought I really executed my plan, I thought, as good as I can,” Marquez said. “I just went in with the mindset to command my pitches and attack. A lot of times it doesn’t work perfectly, but tonight it was close to that.”
Phillies pitcher Nick Pivetta finally ended Marquez’s streak with two outs in the third inning with a groundball on which Marquez committed an error. Marquez, however, struck out Santana to end the third for his ninth strikeout of the game.
Marquez finished his performance allowing only three hits and walking none. It was his 12th consecutive quality start, topped only in franchise history by Jimenez’s 15 from 200910.