Colorado Rockies: German Marquez sets single-season strikeout mark

During Wednesday’s crucial Colorado Rockies game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Coors Field, starting pitcher German Marquez set a club record in impressive fashion.

The Colorado Rockies right-hander, Marquez has been terrific this season and was again at the start of Wednesday’s game. Sporting a 3.91 ERA with a 13-10 record in his second full season, the Venezuela native has been a force every fifth day.

Marquez tallied his 215th strikeout by striking out the first five batters he faced on Wednesday, with Roman Quinn going down on strikes, allowing Marquez to set a new franchise mark. The previous single season record was held by Ubaldo Jimenez at 214. Marquez entered the day tied with Pedro Astacio for second-most in a season at 210.

He continued his early mastery by striking out Dylan Cozens to end the second, his sixth consecutive strikeout. That set a franchise mark for the most strikeouts by a Rockies pitcher to open a game. He struck out Scott Kingery to open the third for his seventh consecutive K, another franchise mark, and punched out Andrew Knapp for his eighth straight K, tying an MLB record to open a contest. Opposing pitcher Nick Pivetta reached on an error with two outs in the third to stop the streak.

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His current run of 49 strikeouts entering Wednesday are tied for the club record for most over a five-game span (Astacio, May of 2000).

Marquez has been a strikeout artist all year. That’s the only way one ends up topping 200. He set down 11 or more in three consecutive starts from August 30 to September 10. In franchise history, only Astacio has notched four straight double-digit strikeouts games (May of 2000).

Heading into Wednesday, Marquez has dealt 11 consecutive quality starts since July 29, the longest streak by a Rockies pitcher since Jiménez had a franchise record 15-start quality start streak from 2009-10, including a 14-start streak to begin the 2010 season. Marquez is on his way to another one on Wednesday night as well.

Over this span, he was 5-2 with a 2.36 ERA entering Wednesday night. In those near a dozen games, he has limited opponentsto a .207 batting average.

Marquez is unlikely to get another regular season start. He may, however, be available out of the bullpen over the weekend.

He lines up for a potential game 163 tiebreaker on Monday as that would be his normal rest length. Both he and the dazzling Kyle Freeland would be able to go for a Wild Card game on Tuesday as well.