The Rockies won their sixth consecutive game Wednesday night after defeating the Phillies 14-0. German Márquez was outstanding, and the Rockies’ bats provided more than enough offense for the easy win.
The Cardinals lost Wednesday as well. The Rockies now have a 1.5 game lead on them for the second Wild Card. The Dodgers-Diamondbacks game is still in progress as I hit “publish.” If the Dodgers lose, the Rockies will be in first place in the NL West by 0.5 game.
Hats off to German
Entering Wednesday night German Márquez needed five strikeouts to surpass Ubaldo Jiménez’s Rockies season record of 214 strikeouts, which he set in 2010. Considering that Márquez is striking out more than 10 batters per nine innings this season, it was a pretty good bet he’d set the franchise record. He did. And he did it on the fifth batter he faced. But Márquez did more than just set the franchise record for strikeouts in a season. He also struck out the first eight batters he saw. The eight straight to start the game tied a major league record. He shares the record with Jim Deshais and Jacob deGrom.
Remarkably, dwelling too much on those feats may even be a disservice because they distract from the incredible game he pitched overall on Wednesday: Seven innings, no runs, three hits, 11 strikeouts, and one walk.
Taco’s in the 5th
Behind Márquez’s brilliance, the Rockies held a modest 2-0 lead heading into the fifth inning, but they hit three multi-run home runs to blow the game wide open. David Dahl started it off with a three run homer. That makes three home runs in three days for Dahl. Trevor Story got into the action next with another dinger that reached the concourse in left field. That was a two-run shot. And then Ian Desmond, who has only hit two home runs since the All-Star break, hit a two run home run to straightaway center field. The seven run inning jazzed the Coors Field crowd up with visions of October.
Up next
The Cardinals and the Dodgers are both off tomorrow, so the Rockies will either gain or lose 0.5 game on each of them when they finish their four-game series with the Phillies tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 MT. The starting pitchers are Antonio Senzatela and Jake Arrieta.