Márquez delivers Rockies' latest Coors gem

DENVER -- In a season that has been strange -- even by Rockies and Coors Field standards -- one element of Colorado’s success at home and futility on the road that has been particularly perplexing is how the starting pitching has thrived in the most hitter-friendly environment in the Majors while struggling at sea level.

That continued on Thursday night, when Germán Márquez yielded just one hit over six scoreless innings to help the Rockies beat the Brewers, 7-3, in their series opener at Coors Field. The victory improved Colorado’s home record this year to 24-14 -- the Rockies are 5-27 on the road.

On another sweltering evening following a day in which the temperature reached triple digits in the Mile High City, Márquez mirrored the experience of his club in 2021, following up an outing in which he was shelled for nine runs at Cincinnati with another strong performance at the corner of 20th and Blake Street. The entire starting rotation has enjoyed success at Coors this season, entering Thursday with a 3.54 ERA at home versus a 6.42 ERA on the road.

“I wish I had the answer,” manager Bud Black said when asked what he made of the counterintuitive home-road splits. “I think there’s a comfort factor when you’re in your own ballpark, in your own home, your surroundings. I know that this ballpark is offensively slanted, but as it relates to our pitchers, our pitchers don’t care about that. Our pitchers are mentally tough -- our starting pitchers, especially, because they’re the ones throwing 100 pitches per start, roughly. And they just make pitches.”

Márquez cruised for the most part despite fighting his command all night -- the right-hander threw 83 pitches, 54 of which were strikes and two were back-to-back wild pitches in the fifth. He walked three and struck out two. He was hit by a comebacker in the first inning that “got his wrist pretty good,” according to Black, who went out to check on him along with head trainer Keith Dugger. Márquez remained in the game, but another issue popped up around the fifth inning -- cramping on the left side of his back.

“He’s been through this before -- the last couple of years, there were a couple of games where we’ve had to take him out because he was cramped,” Black said. “So in the fifth it started, he got through the sixth, and we were planning on having him go out for the seventh ... but when he came back from his [sixth-inning] at-bat … his hamstrings and back started cramping up. [Might have been] dehydration, I’m not sure. But Germán’s had a little bit of history of this.”

Márquez got all the run support he’d need in the first inning, when a C.J. Cron grand slam, followed by a Garrett Hampson home run, put the Rockies up, 5-0. Taking advantage of sloppy Milwaukee defense, Colorado tacked on a couple more in the sixth, thanks to RBI singles by Raimel Tapia, who then advanced to second on an error by Avisaíl García in right field, and Yonathan Daza.

The Rockies have a history of being a team of extremes, but that has usually been with respect to home-road splits at the plate because of how pitches behave differently at sea level, and the related difficulty of winning away from Coors Field. But in 2021, there’s also the starting pitching split.

Black, the only former MLB pitcher to manage the Rockies, has instilled a mantra of “make good pitches and good things happen; make bad pitches and bad things happen, regardless of where you’re pitching,” with his staff since taking the helm in 2017. He reiterated that attitude after the latest shutdown performance from a Colorado starter.

“This is a tough place to pitch,” Black said. “And our guys disregard that as far as what’s out there nationally, what’s out there in reality. So I’m very proud of this group, as far as that. Starting pitching is the foundation of any team’s success. You have to have that every night if you’re gonna run through 162 games over six months. ... I’ve gotta pat those guys on the back publicly and behind the scenes, because they are the backbone of any team’s success.”

For an organization that has been in turmoil since Black guided it to back-to-back postseason appearances in 2017 and ’18, the strength has remained its starting pitching. Black’s mention of “disregarding reality” is telling, in that the Coors Effect is real and a daunting challenge for any pitcher -- or team.

Perhaps it’s as simple as Thursday’s offensive hero, Cron, put it after the victory:

“I mean, we’ve gotta win somewhere, right?”