The Colorado Rockies defeated the Miami Marlins Friday at Coors Field 3-0 in the first game of a three-game series.

Ahead are takeaways from the victory.

Jon Gray returns to form 

It appears being pushed back a couple of days had no effect on Rockies’ starting pitcher Jon Gray. His previous outing was delayed after Manager Bud Black announced the flamethrower was dealing with a sore left ankle.

Gray came out firing against the Marlins and looked dominant as he weaved around the batting order. Gray allowed a pair of hits through the first two innings but settled in nicely by not allowing a hit over a three-inning stretch.

Miami did apply pressure to Gray late in his start when Neil Walker hit a one-out triple in the top of the seventh inning, but the hurler didn’t buckle and was able to record two outs to escape the inning unscathed.

Gray hurled eight dominant innings, allowing just five hits while punching out seven batters.

Friday’s start was yet another example of Gray’s brilliance on the mound this season. Gray’s outing versus Miami was a nice bounce-back performance after struggling through the early portion of August. Gray had allowed seven combined runs in each of his previous two starts.

Gray has been the Rockies best starter this season and is tied for the first on the team with 11 wins.

McMahon provides early offense 

Friday’s ballgame was a low-scoring affair, but Ryan McMahon provided the Rockies with enough offense to end the night with a victory.

Yonder Alonso worked a walk to begin the second inning. Raimel Tapia followed by hitting into a fielder’s choice, bringing McMahon to the plate with a runner on and one out.

McMahon took a slider to start the at-bat, and proceded to square up the second pitch – also a slider – over the fence to right-center field to establish a 2-0 lead for the Rockies:

The home run was the 15th of the season for McMahon. Of his 20 career long balls, 14 have either tied the game or put the Rockies ahead.

McMahon played the hero in the Rockies’ victory Wednesday versus the Arizona Diamondbacks when he crushed a game-tying three-run home run in the sixth inning.

The youngster has been red hot at the dish since the All-Star break, driving in a team-leading 25 run since the Midsummer Classic.

Additionally, McMahon has hit safely in 16 of his last 22 games.

Miami proves they are baseball’s bottom feeders

It has been a long, difficult road for the Marlins in 2019.

Under the new ownership headed by New York Yankees’ icon, Derek Jeter, the Marlins are in the process of rebuilding their organization from the ground up.

Miami’s roster is a mesh of young players and veterans. The results have not been great as the club owns an NL-worst 45 wins.

According to FanGraphs, the Marlins are on track to win just 61 games in 2019.

The Marlins poor play shined bright versus Colorado.

Miami was unable to gain any traction in the batter’s box as the Rockies’ pitching staff did not allow a single run to cross the plate en route to yet another loss for the fish. Multiple fielding errors only exacerbated the struggles.