Rockies’ road back to playoffs a bit easier

The Colorado Rockies are closer to locking up their first post-season spot since 2009 after beating the Miami Marlins 15-9 on Wednesday, setting up a weekend to remember at Coors Field in Denver.

The Rockies have three games left and cling to a 11/2-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers, who played the Cincinnati Reds later Wednesday. The St. Louis Cardinals trailed by three games after falling 5-1 to the NL Central-champion Chicago Cubs.

Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton was hitless in three at-bats with three strikeouts and remained at a major league-leading 57 homers.

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, J.D. Martinez tied Ralph Kiner’s National League record with his 16th homer in September, sparking a three-run, ninth-inning rally that led the Arizona Diamondbacks past the San Francisco Giants 4-3.

Martinez has 45 homers this season, 29 of them in his 59 games with the Diamondbacks, who acquired him in a trade with the Detroit Tigers on July 18. The major league record for September homers is 17, by Babe Ruth in 1927 and Albert Belle in 1995.

Arizona will be back in action at Chase Field next Wednesday in the NL wild card game.

And in Arlington, Texas, major league batting leader Jose Altuve has a few more games to add to another 200-hit season as the Houston Astros second baseman reached 200 hits for the fourth season in a row during Wednesday’s 12-2 rout of the Texas Rangers.

With the win, the AL Westchampion Astros completed a dominating three-game sweep of their cross-state rivals.

Altuve bolstered his .347 average with a single Wednesday. He is the fourth right-handed hitter in major league history with four consecutive 200-hit seasons. The last was Michael Young, with five in a row for Texas from 2003 to 2007.