German Marquez moves with the ease of a greased bike chain. His pitching windup uncoils in one smooth, circular motion, and at the end of that glide, the ball busts out at a batter in a bolt.
“In spring training, I stand around home plate to watch our guys throw,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “The thing about him, even though it’s a nice, easy delivery and there’s not a lot of deception, it has carry through the hitting area. It takes off.”
Marquez on Tuesday night returned to the Rockies with a difficult assignment. The 22-year-old right-hander who debuted as a September call-up last season and started this year in Colorado’s bullpen took a late trot to the rainy mound to face the first-place .
By the second inning of what turned into a 15-12 Nationals victory, delayed 1 hour and 16 minutes by the weather, Marquez’s mellow approach melted with one glaring, rookie mistake. With two outs and no one on in the second, he walked Washington’s pitcher, Joe Ross, on eight pitches. A two-out walk to the opposing pitcher is like spitting into the wind or cursing in church. It’s a basic no-no.
“That was not good,” Marquez said.
He needed only three pitches to get Jayson Werth and Matt Wieters to ground into two outs. The next seven batters in the inning took considerably longer.
“The inexperience of the starting rotation will test us,” Black said last week. His team now sports the youngest rotation in baseball, with an average age of 24. “But the best teacher will be in the fire.”
Marquez stepped into the fire against a loaded Nationals lineup, starring Bryce Harper and a cast packed with all-stars. Harper’s double in the first inning scored Trea Turner to start the barrage. And Turner’s bases-loaded triple later in the seventh against Colorado reliever gave him a cycle — the second single-double-triple-homer feat this season at Coors Field.
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But the second inning was Marquez’s undoing. With Ross on board as Washington’s first baserunner in the frame, the Nationals went on to score five runs, capped by Daniel Murphy’s bases-loaded triple. Marquez and the Rockies were sunk in the rain. He lasted just four innings, his briefest career start, after giving up eight runs on nine hits.
“The second inning, I’m sure he’d like to have back,” Black said. “He’ll gather this one and realize, if he get through that second inning, the whole world changes. Who knows what happens? But it didn’t. That’s the reality.”
In four Triple-A appearances before his call-back, Marquez struck out 18 batters and walked none. On Tuesday, he struck out two and walked three. And the walk to Ross proved to be a killer.
“You’ll see a good, live fastball, a sharp breaking ball, a change,” Black said, scouting his newest, youngest pitcher. “I suspect he’ll throw strikes and be on the attack. The breaking ball will be key. He has to get his breaking ball in good spots in the strike zone.”
That breaking ball, though, flattened in the zone against Murphy, who belted the pitch to deep center field for a triple. Marquez had walked the two previous batters, Harper and Ryan Zimmerman, making the inning even more painful.
Black did not even mention the intra-inflicted danger of walks to Marquez. “That’s pretty self-explanatory,” he said.
But Marquez flashed some promise, striking out Zimmerman looking in the first and Harper on a full-count fastball after the pitcher battled back from a 3-0 count.
The Rockies had a four-game winning streak halted, but not for lack of offense. In the four previous victories, they scored 34 runs, including an 8-4 win Monday over the Nats. They were averaging 8.5 runs per game over that stretch.
On Tuesday, the Rockies fell victim to a swirling, misty wind that knocked down big hits at the warning track, from , , and , that on a dry July day probably would have hit the seats. ‘s solo homer to lead off the second inning reached the second deck above right field only in a brief break from the weather.
The Rockies trailed 15-7 entering the bottom of the eighth but then scored four runs, including a two-run homer by Blackmon, to add some anxiety. For the first time since 2003, the Rockies scored 12 or more runs and lost.
And while Ross was only slightly better than Marquez, pitching 4 2/3 innings and giving up five runs on seven hits and two home runs, the Nationals starter never walked the pitcher with two outs.
“This team is amazing. We have really good hitters,” Marquez said. “I have to keep the score close.”
