Rockies 2, Marlins 1: Pitching bails out offense

Nothing comes easy for this iteration of the Colorado Rockies. On paper, the Rockies have the best lineup they've had all season, with good health and cutting ties with the dead weight at third and second base. On paper. In reality, scoring runs has become more torturous than pulling teeth.

Luckily, the remarkable season of Jorge de la Rosa continued tonight, as he twirled six shut-out innings against the Miami Marlins. JDLR scattered five hits and one walk while striking out five. His ERA on the year dipped below 3.00 to 2.97; after 121.1 innings, while pitching half his games at Coors Field. His year has been nothing short of incredible, especially coming off Tommy john surgery.

The end result was a 2 to 1 victory for the Rockies at Coors Field, but it was a victory that felt gifted rather than earned as far as the offense is concerned. The seventh, eighth, and ninth innings were all stressful affairs, as the Marlins stacked multiple base runners against the bullpen.

In the seventh, Edgmer Escalona loaded the bases faster than you can say "meltdown". He struck out Adeiny Hecheverria on a critical 3-2 pitch; Josh Outman came in and struck out Christian Yelich; and Wilton Lopez came in and broke Giancarlo Stanton's bat for a harmless ground out to Nolan Arenado at third to escape the jam.

Speaking of Arenado; he had another fine game, with a number of sparkling defensive plays and an RBI single. It's further evidence that hitting ground balls to the left side of the infield is a bad idea for opposing teams.

Todd Helton smacked his 579th career double, moving him past Wade Boggs to stand alone in 18th place all time.

Matt Belisle gave up three hits and an earned run in the eighth, making the game a one run affair. It was another troubling outing for the Rockies iron man. Luckily, Rex Brothers cruised through the ninth inning by striking out Hechevarria and inducing ground outs from Ed Lucas and Christian Yelich. He walked Giancarlo Stanton in between them, but considering that Stanton is Stanton, that's hardly a bad outcome.

While this can hardly be called an encouraging victory with the offense's continued ineptitude, it is a victory nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers continued their winning ways by coming back against the Blue Jays and defeating them in extra innings; as of this writing, the D-Backs are losing 6-5 to the Cubs in the ninth. The NL West is still attainable, but the Rockies need to start scoring runs for the love of God.

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-07-24&team=Rockies&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-07-24&team=Rockies&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>

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Nathan Eovaldi takes on Juan Nicasio tomorrow at 1:10 pm.