Rockies swim shoddily on South Beach, sink late

Gerardo Parra had two outfield assists in the game, the first Colorado Rockie to do so in years, and he and Nolan Arenado hit home runs Friday night. That was the extent of the good news for the Rocks, though, who fell to 1-2 on their road trip in losing 6-3 to the Miami Marlins.

While Arenado achieved the century mark in RBI on the year, while top prospect Ryan McMahon was called up before the game and while ace Jon Gray was on the hill, the Marlins just had more. They overcame a 3-1 deficit on Gray in getting the win.

In the early going, things went Colorado’s way. Charlie Blackmon led off the third with a tomahawk double to right and scored on Arenado’s 26th homer, a laser beam line drive that crashed off the wall behind the right field fence so hard it actually ricocheted back into play. Arenado recorded RBI 99 and 100 on the swing, giving him a double-digit lead over three players tied for second place in that category.

The Rockies third baseman became the first player with 100 RBI in the NL first for three straight seasons since Willie Stargell, 1971-73. With his third career season with at least 15 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and 100 RBI, he tied Adrian Beltre for most by a third baseman in MLB history.

The Marlins cut the lead in half in the fifth, getting a pair of ground ball singled just out of the reach of the Rockies infield and then scoring a run on a double play off the bat of Miguel Rojas. Gray did well to limit further damage.

Colorado got that run right back on the first batter of the next half-frame when Parra sat back on an offspeed pitch and launched his ninth home run of the season over the wall in right field to make it 3-1, Rockies.

But Miami struck back in the sixth. Giancarlo Stanton caught a hanging slider from Gray and smashed it into oblivion for his 40th home run of the season. Gray then left a fastball up to Christian Yelich, who slapped it the other way for a double. Yelich moved up on a wild pitch — a slider that skipped away from catcher Jonathan Lucroy — and scored the tying run on a sac fly from J.T. Realmuto that required an excellent running catch from Blackmon.

Next, Gray walked Derek Dietrich, prompting manager Bud Black to pull him for Mike Dunn. The lefty finished the Fish’s threat.

Before Dunn and Neshek did their thing the Blackmon led off with another single unfortunately for Colorado DJ LeMahieu grounded into a double play then Arenado would be caught stealing to end the top of the seventh. That was important because it was the Rockies last chance to cash and they failed. They finished the evening 1-7 with RISP and left six on.

Jake McGee was given the eighth. Allowing a leadoff single to Yelich then walking Marcell Ozuna the hard throwing lefty found himself in trouble. Luckily he got Realmuto to line out on a laser hit directly to Parra. Unlucky for him, the next ball was a weakly hit bloop off of a two strike count by Dietrich that scored Yelich which gave Miami the lead. Yet the damage was not done. Tomas Telies picked up his first big league hit from the right side and it was the dagger. He scorched a two-run triple over the head of Blackmon for a 6-3 lead and McGee was then pulled.

There would be no late comeback this time, a la Wednesday in Cleveland.