ROCKIES RALLY IN EIGHTH, TOP DIAMONDBACKS
PHOENIX» The Rockies’ talented, young strikeout machine kept mowing down hitters, while their bats final emerged from hibernation Friday night at Chase Field.
The result was a muchneeded 62 victory over slumping Arizona that breathed life into Colorado’s playoff hopes. Rockies also set a club record recording their 42nd road win of the season.
German Marquez, the 23yearold righthander, fanned 11 Diamondbacks and closed in on the Rockies’ singleseason strikeout record. The offense ripped the Diamondbacks’ sagging bullpen for four runs in the eighth inning, getting RBI singles from David Dahl and Nolan Arenado, and a tworun single from Ian Desmond. Desmond finished the night 2for3 with three RBIs.
It was a 180degree turn for a Rockies offense that hit .158 in the first six games of this critical road trip when they struck out 54 times and hit .108 with runners in scoring position (4for37). Friday night, the Rockies’ RISP average was .625 (5for8).
Colorado, however, got no help from San Francisco. The Giants lost 53 at St. Louis, enabling the Cardinals to remain 1 K games ahead of the Rockies for the second National League wildcard spot. The Rockies have nine games remain ing, the Cardinals eight. The Rockies entered the night trailing the Dodgers by 2 K games in the NL West. The Dodgers were hosting San Diego in a late game at Los Angeles on Friday night.
The first inning was a rocky one for Marquez, but it included a major milestone. Marquez struck out Eduardo Escobar with a 32, 94 mph fastball for his 200th strikeout of the season. Marquez joined Ubaldo Jimenez (2010) and Pedro Astacio (1999) as the only Rockies pitchers to fan 200 batters in a single season.
Marquez, who got the win to improve to 1310, finished the night with 11 strikeouts, leaving him with 210, tied with Ast
acio for the secondmost in franchise history. With one start left next week, Marquez has an excellent shot of surpassing the franchise record of 214 set by Jimenez in2010.
Friday marked the fifth time this season Marquez struck out 10 or more, joining Astacio (twice, in 1999 and 2000) and Jon Gray (2016) as the only Rockies with five or more doubledigit strike out games in a singleseason.
Marquez’ one bit of bad news in the first inning was delivered by David Peralta, who came to the plate immediately after Marquez had whiffed Escobar. Peralta launched a tworun moonshot to right field to put the Diamondbacks ahead 20.
But Marquez didn’t melt down. Instead, he toughened up, and from that point on he was dominant. He finished with seven solid innings of sixhit baseball, giving up only four hits after the first inning. He did not walk a batter. It was his 11th consecutive quality start and his 19th of the season.
Marquez’s best inning — in terms of composure — was the sixth. He surrendered a leadoff single to Jon Jay and then a oneout single to Peralta. Up to the plate came Paul Goldschmidt, who’s owned Marquez in the past, mashing four home runs in 23 atbats entering the night. But this time, Marquez struck him out with a nasty slider. Marquez extinguished the rally by getting Daniel Descalso to fly out to left.
Desmond pulled off a twoforone special in the fifth. His oneout single not only broke up start er Zack Greinke’s nohitter, it scored Carlos Gonzalez to get the Rockies off the schneid. Gonzalez, Colorado’s first baserunner of the game, walked and then advanced to second on Greinke’s wild pitch. Desmond, however, was thrown out attempting to stretch his single into a double.
Colorado tied the game, 22, in the sixth, getting a clutch, twoout RBI from DJ LeMahieu. Charlie Blackmon hit a twoout doubled, extending his hitting streak to 13 games, and then scored on LeMahieu’s groundrule double to leftcenter off Greinke.