MIAMI — The Rockies ran headlong into a hurricane of bad news this weekend in South Florida.
The first squall arrived in the fifth inning Sunday when Nolan Arenado, the Rockies’ all-star third baseman and National League MVP candidate, departed the game against Miami Marlins after getting hit in the left hand on a pitch by Vance Worley.
Fortunately for Arenado, X-rays were negative and the Rockies are calling the injury a contusion. The third baseman said he didn’t think he would have to go on the 10-day disabled list, but he’ll probably be out at least a few games.
The secondary news was bad, too. The Marlins got another home run from the unstoppable Giancarlo Stanton and beat Colorado 5-3 to complete a three-game sweep at Marlins Park. Colorado rookie starter German Marquez did not pitch well and was gone after 4⅓ innings.
BOX SCORE: Marlins 5, Rockies 3
“My hand hurts pretty bad, and it also got really tight, and that was my concern,” Arenado said after the game, his left hand thickly wrapped. “Luckily it’s not broken, but it hurts and it’s going to take some time, Hopefully just a couple of days. But it hurts pretty bad right now.”
Sunday’s loss was the Rockies’ fifth in their last six games, and they fell below .500 on the road for the first time all season, at 30-31. Their grip on a National League wild-card spot, once so strong, is getting weaker by the day.
The game started out just fine for the Rockies. They took a 3-2 lead in the third on an RBI single by Gerardo Parra and a two-run double by Carlos Gonzalez.
But the lead didn’t last very long.
Stanton led off the bottom of the frame with a homer into the right-field corner off Marquez. It was Stanton’s 42nd homer, tying him with Gary Sheffield for the Marlins’ franchise record. Just as remarkable, it was Stanton’s 250th career homer, his 21st in 33 games and ninth in his last 10 games.
Prior to the game, Rockies manager Bud Black talked about the danger of leaving pitches over the plate for Stanton to rip into. Marquez didn’t do that. He actually painted the black edge of the plate with a 98 mph fastball, but the muscular Stanton managed to slice it over the wall.
“It was a good pitch, so you have to give credit to him,” said Marquez, who fell to 9-5 and saw his ERA rise to 4.13.
Yet it wasn’t the solo homer that sunk Marquez. Instead, three consecutive Marlins hits in the fourth inning did him in. Singles by Tomas Telis and Miguel Rojas set the table for Mike Aviles’ double into the right-field corner, giving Florida a 5-3 lead.
Marquez had been the Rockies’ best pitcher for the last month, making six quality starts and going 4-0 with a 2.45 ERA over that span. But on Sunday, he pitched like the 22-year-old rookie that he is, giving up five runs on seven hits. He needed 90 pitches (just 57 strikes) to get into the fifth inning.
“Overall, there was some fastballs up over the plate that ended up costing him,” manager Bud Black said.
Added Marquez: “Most definitely I agree. The fastball command was not there today, and I just kind of started off slow. I tried to pick it up, but it just wasn’t there today.”
As has been the case for most of the 1-5, five-game road trip, the Rockies squandered scoring opportunities. They were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position Sunday and 5-for-39 over the trip.
In the fifth inning, after Arenado’s departure, they had men on second and third with no outs but failed to score a run.
A similar scenario was repeated in the eighth inning. Pat Valaika, starting at shortstop, led off with a single, followed by a single by fellow rookie Ryan McMahon. It was the first hit of McMahon’s big-league career.
But Ryan Hanigan, rather than bunting, grounded into rally-killing double play, and pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds hit a soft roller to short for the final out.
“Runners in scoring position was tough on this trip, for sure,” Black said, agreeing that Colorado had too many empty at-bats. “We just couldn’t get the big hit. The Marlins got a couple of key hits when the score was close. It didn’t happen for us on this trip.”
