When the Colorado Rockies began the 2017 season, 22-year-old German Marquez was stashed in their bullpen, not pitching at all before being sent down to Triple-A about a week into the campaign. On April 25, Marquez made his season debut at Coors Field in a start against the Washington Nationals and was obliterated to the tune of eight runs on four hits over just four innings of work.
In the space between then and now, Marquez has posted an 8-3 record with a 3.56 ERA and standout performances against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates at home.
And on Saturday night in the nation’s capital, the Rockies rookie starter stared down the same fearsome hitters he debuted against in those unmistakable red and white uniforms and he blew them all away, dismantling Washington in a 4-2 Colorado win.
After retiring the first 16 batters of the game, Marquez lost the perfect game bid with one out in the sixth on an opposite field single from Matt Wieters against one of the few hanging curveballs the kid threw in the game. It was the third most consecutive batters sat down by a pitcher in Rockies history. Did we mention that he is 22?
The at-bat prior, after falling behind 3-0 to Adam Lind, with two borderline calls going as balls, and after 10 fastballs struck him out with the wicked curve.
As so often happens, once the seal was broken, Marquez suddenly looked human again, giving up a pinch-hit double to Howie Kendrick in his first at-bat in a Nationals uniform. Still, it looked like Marquez would power his way out of it after striking out Brian Goodwin with a fastball Goodwin is still half way through his swing on. But Wilmer Difo threw the bat head at an outside fastball on the first pitch of the next at-bat, lofting a soft liner just in front of Gerardo Parra in left field, scoring two.
Within a handful of minutes, Marquez had lost the perfect game, the no-hitter, and the shutout and was suddenly staring at Bryce Harper who represented the tying run in the batter’s box. The 22-year-old regained his focus once again, trusted his ridiculous power stuff and struck out one of the very best all-around hitters in baseball with the high cheese. It was his 10th strikeout of the game, making it the first time the young fireballer has reached double digits in that department. It was only the second time in Rockies history that a rookie pitcher has struck out at least 10 hitters without walking a batter. The only other time was Jon Gray‘s famous 16-strikeout game against the San Diego Padres.
First this pic.twitter.com/YoC6NJXgTO
— BSN Rockies (@BSNRockies) July 30, 2017
Then this pic.twitter.com/Yvvl3tmNom
— BSN Rockies (@BSNRockies) July 30, 2017
Marquez cruised through a 1-2-3 seventh inning to finish off his masterpiece that, like so many of the greats, contained one blemish. He is only the seventh pitcher in Rockies history to carry a perfect game into the sixth inning
Nationals starter Tanner Roark had good stuff, spotting the fastball well at times and racking up eight strikeouts. But the Rockies offense was patient both in and out of the strike zone, driving up his pitch count, working out four walks, and making the most of their five hits against him.
The first example of this came in the second when Carlos Gonzalez drew a walk and Trevor Story put together one of the best at-bats of his career, staying right on every pitch, fouling a few straight back, tracking the ball all the way before finally blasting a two-run homer over the right-center field wall on the eighth pitch.
Colorado plated another pair in the fifth again starting with an excellent at-bat from DJ LeMahieu who drew a walk. Gerardo Parra came through with a two-out double to left, DJ was off on the pitch and scored. Mark Reynolds followed with a double off the right field wall to score Parra, putting Colorado up 4-0.
Parra is now batting .360 on the season with 43 RBI. Since May 23, Parra is batting an eye-popping .500 (43-for-86) with 29 RBI over 26 games. He has been the driving force of the Rockies offense, to the surprise of many, working his way into the cleanup spot in the lineup. And he has proven Bud Black wise in that decision.
He has done all this while missing 28 games with a right quad strain.
Pat Neshek made his Colorado Rockies debut in the eighth with a two-run lead. He got a little help from Story (who had a few nifty plays in the game) and Nolan Arenado (who has had a few nifty plays in his career) to get the first two outs but finished off his inning with his patented ugly-swing-inducing stuff for the punch out.
Greg Holland was called upon for the save in his first game back off the paternity list. He did so with ease to extend his MLB lead in saves to 32, completing one of the best-pitched games of the season for the Rockies.
Colorado moved to 59-45 and snapped a three-game losing streak.
