Marlins Defeat The Rockies Once Again

and the Rockies offense faltered once again as the team lost to the Marlins on Tuesday night. Image: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday’s edition of MLB Tonight, John Smoltz declared that if either the Houston Astros or Miami Marlins lose less than 100 games this season, that team’s skipper should be named Manager of the Year. It stands to reason, then, that the Marlins don’t have very many good players. It just happens that the handful of good players that they do have beat up on the Colorado Rockies Tuesday night. A 4-2 loss extended the Rockies’ offensive woes and leaves the team scrambling to try and get a split, at home, against the Marlins.

As expected Jose Fernandez was darn impressive. He went seven innings and struck out eight Rockies. Of particular note was a sequence in the 4th inning. The Rockies had Carlos Gonzalez on third and Troy Tulowitzki on first. Behind 2-0 in the count against Michael Cuddyer, Fernandez went slider, slider, slider to get the strike out. He then K’ed first baseman Todd Helton, slamming the door shut and sucking the air out of Coors Field in the process. It is easy to be frustrated in that instance, but not many pitchers in all of baseball can pull off that sequence, especially the manner in which he struck out Cuddy. It was special stuff from the 20-year-old star.

Then it was two talented bullpen arms, Mike Dunn and Steve Cishek, who stifled the Rockies. For his part Dunn was especially nasty, overwhelming the batters he faced with a mid-90′s fastball. He K’ed two in his inning of work. Cishek got himself into a bit of a pickle, walking CarGo to put the tying run on, but he then sat down Tulo, Cuddy, and Helton in order to end the game.

On the offensive side of things, top prospect Christian Yelich wowed in his much-ballyhooed debut, pitching in three hits and a couple RBI.

Oh, and Mike Stanton hit a baseball really far. In case that surprised anybody.

Math is not a strength for me, but I do know this: three total runs in two home games is never going to cut it for the Rockies. There are still enough games to salvage this home stand, but that process has to start with finding a way to split against the Marlins. The way things are going, that may or may not happen.