Marquez (cramps) exits, Rockies fall in ninth

DENVER -- Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez was sizzling Wednesday afternoon, with 10 strikeouts through six scoreless innings against the Dodgers. Then, while warming up for the seventh, Marquez left the game with what general manager Jeff Bridich announced was “full body cramping.”

The Rockies and the runaway National League West-leading Dodgers stayed scoreless until one out in the top of the ninth, when Colorado closer Wade Davis allowed a three-run homer to Will Smith and a two-run homer to Kristopher Negron in a 5-1 Los Angeles victory at Coors Field.

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Doesn’t that sum up the Rockies’ season? Well, Marquez won’t go there.

“I don’t believe in bad luck; it just happened because it had to happen,” said Marquez, who took an hour’s worth of intravenous fluids after leaving the game. “I just believe we need to keep working and get better.”

After a 3-12 start, the Rockies won 37 of 59 and were leading the NL Wild Card race as late as June 21. Shortly thereafter, the season turned painful. Colorado finished an awful July at 6-19 -- a skid that dissuaded the Rockies from making anything more than under-the-radar improvements at Wednesday afternoon’s Trade Deadline. They’ve lost nine of their past 13 at Coors.

“Teams go through ups and downs; we just haven’t done a good job of managing our downs,” said shortstop Trevor Story, who tripled to open the ninth and scored the Rockies’ only run.

Marquez, who had held the Dodgers to two hits and faced just 19 batters -- one more than the minimum -- pulled up while throwing a warmup pitch. He could barely land on his right leg on the follow-through, and he was helped from the field by pitching coach Steve Foster and head athletic trainer Keith Dugger.

For the season, Marquez has a 4.68 ERA, but he has been especially hot of late. Including Wednesday, Marquez had held opponents to four runs and 10 hits and struck out 22 in his past 20 innings over three starts. With any offense at all against Hyun-Jin Ryu, who held the Rockies to three hits in six scoreless innings, and better relief work, Marquez’s effort might have given Colorado the series win.

Then the cramps hit.

“I was doing some stuff, somebody yelled my name and I looked out and saw him,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “It looked like from the dugout he was cramping. And I’d heard that his back was starting to tighten up, so I immediately thought that. But the extent of it, we didn’t know until we got out there that multiple body parts were cramping.

“This was one of his best outings of the year as far as the fastball command, the velocity of it through his outing, and some really good curveballs. That was a really good one.”

That was forgotten after Davis gave up a one-out ninth-inning walk to Matt Beaty, retired no one else and was booed off the field.