The San Francisco Giants embarrassed the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in the first game of a day-night doubleheader, winning 19-2.
The Rockies and Giants will play again Monday evening with first pitch set for 6:40 local time.
Ahead are takeaways from the Rockies’ game one loss.
Marquez gets rocked
Regarded as the Rockies’ “ace” ahead of the 2019 season, German Marquez has been anything but that for Colorado this season.
Although Marquez has had some bright spots this year, his body of work has been underwhelming, especially after he inked a lucrative extension at the start of this season.
Marquez sputtered into the All-Star break, surrendering five runs in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks his last time out. His struggles not only carried over to his first start of the second half, but they were amplified.
Marquez was the starting pitcher in the first game of a doubleheader between the Rockies and Giants. Colorado was hopeful Marquez would show out on the mound and put the club in a position to take the first game, but the opposite happened.
The 24-year-old fell into trouble right away, surrendering back-to-back hits to open up the game. After setting down Pablo Sandoval, Marquez surrendered a single to Alex Dickerson that pushed home the first runs of the game. The flood gates then opened as Marquez proceeded to allow an additional four runs to cross the plate in the opening frame.
Marquez managed to stop the bleeding in the second inning by posting a scoreless frame, but his deficiencies returned in the third inning.
San Francisco pegged Marquez, platting an additional seven runs to push the game well out of reach.
Monday’s start was easily the worst start of Marquez’ career as he departed with a line of 2.2 innings pitched, allowing 11 runs on 11 hits.
Rockies offense was a no-show
Monday’s affair felt like it was over and done, just minutes into the game. After the Giants jumped out to a 5-0 lead, everything seemed to fall into place for San Francisco.
The Rockies offense was dormant, and there was little-to-no energy from within the lineup.
Manager Bud Black essentially waved the white flag when he yanked Nolan Arenado from the ballgame. At that point, the Rockies were already down by double-digit runs.
While the Rockies’ pitching was awful in the first game versus San Francisco, so was the offense. Colorado’s first hit of the game did not come until the third inning, and their runs stemmed from longballs off the bats of Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon.
To be frank, the Rockies rolled over Monday afternoon in every facet of the game.
Pitching continues to trend in the wrong direction
There was hope swirling around the club that the All-Star break would provide the Rockies’ pitching staff ample time to rest and recover for the second half of the season.
Unfortunately, it appears as if the break did just the opposite. The Rockies pitching staff has been dismal out of the break, surrendering an average of 11.75 runs per game.
Although the showing from the staff was putrid in game one against the Giants, they were already one of the worst pitching corps in the game.
The Rockies opened their series against the Giants boasting the highest earned run average in the National League with a mark of 5.29.
Additionally, the Rockies have surrendered the most runs in the NL out of the break with Monday’s slaughter adding fuel to the fire.
Reynolds takes the bump
With the Rockies down 17-2 in the ninth inning, Black opted to spare his bullpen and called upon first baseman Mark Reynolds to pitch the final inning.
Reynolds is the third position player in club history to make an appearance as a pitcher, joining Brent Mayne and Toddy Zeile.
Reynolds coughed up two runs and hit a batter in his short stint on the mound.
