DENVER- The hot Colorado Rockies offense couldn’t find an answer for Miami Marlins starter Trevor Richards who dominated early and kept his team in the game long enough for the home bullpen to fall apart again.

Once again, manager Bud Black turned to Bryan Shaw in a close game, and once again, it bit him and the team, ultimately leading to a five-run inning in a game the Rockies lost 6-2.

The Marlins broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth when Derek Dietrich jumped all over a first-pitch fastball from Anderson that ended up right down the middle of the strike zone. It was Anderson’s only real mistake pitch to that point in the game but it cleared the high wall in right-center field, 399 feet away to give the Fish a 1-0 lead.

Colorado answered right back in the bottom of the frame but missed a chance to take the lead.

Carlos Gonzalez collected the first hit of the game for the Rockies with one out in the fourth, singling up the middle. He raced around to third on a double off the bat of Trevor Story that was hammered to left, a bit too hard for CarGo to attempt to score.

He came on in when Gerardo Parra put a charge into a deep liner to center that couldn’t find a gap so he would have to settle for the sac fly with Story also moving up to third on the play.

In the next at-bat, Ian Desmond fell behind but worked the count full before Trevor Richards delivered arguably his best pitch of the game, painting the outside edge for the called strikeout to strand the runner at third.

This came back to bite the Rockies in the seventh when the Marlins finally broke through with a rally against Anderson, opening up the frame with a pair of singles (neither hit especially hard) by Yadiel Rivera and Bryan Holaday before a pinch-hit line drive single from Justin Bour gave Miami the lead and chased Anderson from the game.

Bryan Shaw came on to replace Anderson and fell victim to some bad luck on a swinging bunt, infield hit by Starlin Castro but then got some help on a nice play from DJ LeMahieu at second who came home for the force out rather than turn the double play. That kept the score at 2-1 but the Marlins best hitter, J.T. Realmuto fought off some tough pitches before getting a pitch he could handle, lining it just over the scoreboard in right for a grand slam.

The Rockies got one back on a solo home run from Parra in the seventh, making him the only player for Colorado to drive in runs in the game.

Colorado falls to 38-39.

Final Stats:

Tyler Anderson: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K

What’s Next:

The rubber match takes place Sunday afternoon with the first pitch at 1:10 Mountain Time. German Marquez faces off against Caleb Smith.