MIAMI — A road drought inevitably strikes the Rockies’ offense every season. It often rears its ugly head in June.
This year it arrived with a vengeance in the spacious cavern known as Marlins Park.
The Rockies fell 5-1 to Miami on Friday night, after getting blanked 6-0 on Thursday night.
“We certainly haven’t got the timely hit the last couple of days,” manager Walt Weiss said after the Rockies went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. “We have been doing that pretty well over the last couple of weeks, but we just have to fight through the tough times.”
The Rockies are now 14-15 on the road. Tracing back to Wednesday afternoon’s homestand finale at Coors Field against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Rockies were blanked for 17 consecutive innings.
Carlos Gonzalez finally snapped the dry spell in the seventh inning with a one-out solo homer off Miami starter Jose Ureña, who notched his first big-league victory. Given that CarGo had to reach for the pitch, then power the ball to the opposite field, it was one of the most impressive of his seven home runs this season.
Despite their struggles at the plate, the Rockies were still in the game until the eighth inning. That’s when reliever Scott Oberg walked two batters and paid the price. After issuing free passes to Giancarlo Stanton and Justin Bour, Oberg spun around to watch his 94 mph fastball to catcher J.T. Realmuto sail over the left-field fence for a three-run homer. Oberg has pitched well at times, but he’s given up seven home runs in 22 innings.
“Scotty just let a pitch get elevated,” Weiss said.
With the exception of CarGo’s homer, the Rockies were unable to solve the puzzle of Ureña, a 23-year-old rookie right-hander pitching against them for the second time in six days. Making just his fourth big-league start, Ureña gave up one run on six hits in 6 innings. He induced double-play groundouts to end the first and sixth innings.
“He has a good fastball and he was throwing his changeup a lot to lefties. He kept us off balance,” said Colorado left fielder Corey Dickerson, who ripped a double into the right-field corner in the second inning but was left stranded.
Last Sunday at Coors Field, Ureña limited the Rockies to one run on three hits over 6 innings. He got a no-decision, but Miami won that game 3-2 in the 10th inning.
Rockies starter Kyle Kendrick came to the mound Friday with a history of success against the Marlins — 13-3 with a 3.29 ERA as a starter for Philadelphia. He was good again, giving up two runs on seven hits over 6 innings at Marlins Park. But he wasn’t good enough on a night when the Rockies managed just seven hits.
The Marlins scratched out a run in the fourth when Christian Yelich singled, stole second and scored on Marcell Ozuna’s single up the middle. Ozuna nearly hit for a fictional cycle in his at-bat.
He crushed an apparent two-run homer down the left-field line off Kendrick, but a replay showed that the ball was clearly foul.
Ozuna then raked a would-be double down the third-base line, but that was foul by inches. He ended his nine-pitch at-bat by drilling his single up the middle.
The Marlins took a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning on Martin Prado’s leadoff solo shot, the 16th home run hit off Kendrick this season.
“(The pitch to) Prado was just a 3-1 cutter that I was kind of lazy with and I paid the price for it,” said Kendrick, now 2-8 with a 5.87 ERA. “This was a tough loss and that’s what matters.”
June swoons are part of the Rockies’ recent legacy — they were 8-20 in the month last season — and with two more games against the Marlins in Miami, then two more at Houston beginning Monday, the Rockies need to crank up their offense in a hurry.
“This is the big leagues and this is a hard game,” Dickerson said. “I mean, those guys are good and all we can do is try to battle every day.
“But we need to put something together consistently. That’s what it takes to win up here. To score runs, you have to put together good at-bats consistently.”
Looking ahead
Rockies’ David Hale (2-0, 4.12 ERA) at Marlins’ Mat Latos (1-4, 6.12), 2:10 p.m. Saturday, ROOT; 850 AM
Hale will never be mistaken for an ace, but the Rockies are 2-1 in his three starts and he’s given them a chance to win every time he’s taken the mound. He has pitched six or more innings in all three of his outings, netting three quality starts. As a reliever with the Braves last season, Hale made five appearances vs. Miami, allowing seven hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in nine innings. Latos is making his first start since landing on the disabled list May 23 with left knee inflammation. The right-hander is winless in five starts at home this season (0-2, 10.18 ERA), but he is 5-2 with a 3.79 ERA in his career against Colorado. He has owned Troy Tulowitzki (2-for-16, four strikeouts), but has been hit hard by Carlos Gonzalez (6-for-19, two home runs).
Sunday: Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa (3-2, 5.53 ERA) at Marlins’ Dan Haren (6-2, 3.12), 11:10 a.m., ROOT
Monday: Rockies’ Chad Bettis (2-1, 3.05) at Astros’ Dallas Keuchel (7-2, 1.90), 6:05 p.m., ROOT
Tuesday: Rockies’ Chris Rusin (2-1, 3.38) at Astros’ Vincent Velasquez (0-0, 0.00), 12:10 p.m., no TV
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or
