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Major League Baseball
Miami 5, Colorado 4
When: 8:40 PM ET, Monday, September 25, 2017
Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
Temperature: 51°
Umpires: Home - Brian Gorman, 1B - Dan Iassogna, 2B - Alan Porter, 3B - Tripp Gibson III
Attendance: 24685

DENVER -- With a chance to inch closer to the postseason for the first time since 2009, the Colorado Rockies stumbled Monday night and lost 5-4 to the Miami Marlins.

Odrisamer Despaigne stymied the Rockies for six innings, and No. 8 hitter Miguel Rojas had a career-high four RBIs with two doubles, the first a three-run blow in Miami's four-run fourth, as the Rockies lost for the sixth time in eight games.

"We're trying to play the best baseball that we can because it's really important not just for us but for the whole league," Rojas said. "I feel this is kind of going to get us ready for what we want to accomplish in the next couple years."

With five games remaining in the regular season, the Rockies are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers and 2 1/2 games in front of the St. Louis Cardinals in the race for the second National League wild card.

Despaigne (1-3) gave up two runs and seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts. He won for the first time since Aug. 15, 2015, at Miami while pitching for the San Diego Padres. In three career starts against the Rockies, two of them coming at Coors Field, Despaigne is 3-0 with a 1.83 ERA.

He got eight outs on ground balls.

"This ballpark makes you concentrate and focus on every pitch," Despaigne said through a translator. "And that kind of helps me out here and it keeps me concentrating and not relaxing on any one pitch or any one batter. It makes me concentrate on keeping my focus up."

Looking to add to his major-league-leading total of 57 home runs, Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton went 0-for-5 and failed to hit the ball out of the infield. On his final at-bat with the bases loaded in the eighth, he hit a comebacker to Carlos Estevez to end the inning.

Jonathan Lucroy cut the Marlins' lead to 5-3 with one out in the seventh when he hit his fifth homer overall and second since joining the Rockies.

Pinch hitter Raimel Tapia followed with an infield single, and Brian Ellington walked Charlie Blackmon, bringing Drew Steckenrider out of the Miami bullpen. He walked DJ LeMahieu to load the bases.

Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly made it 5-4 and moved all the runners up a base, but Mark Reynolds fouled out.

Steckenrider struck out the side in the eighth, paving the way for Kyle Barraclough to earn his first major league save.

After issuing a leadoff walk, Barraclough struck out pinch hitter Carlos Gonzalez and got Blackmon to hit a soft liner to first base for a game-ending double play.

"It was a grind tonight," Lucroy said. "It didn't work out for us. It was a rough one. That play to end the game was kind of weird, lining out, double play like that. Five feet to the left, that's a double, and maybe a run scored right there. This game is crazy sometimes. We got to come back out here tomorrow. I know it's cliche, but there's no quitting here."

Gerardo Parra's groundout brought home Arenado in the sixth to make it 5-2. Arenado led off with a double and took third on Reynolds' fly to center.

Kyle Freeland took over for starter Tyler Chatwood (8-14) in the sixth and gave up back-to-back doubles to Dietrich and Rojas in a three-pitch span to begin the inning, putting the Marlins ahead 5-1.

Blackmon doubled home a run with two outs in the fifth, cutting Miami's lead to 4-1. The hit followed pinch hitter Alexi Amarista's single.

Chatwood gave up four runs, all on five straight one-out hits in the fourth. He yielded seven hits and four runs in five innings with two walks and five strikeouts in a 95-pitch outing.

The one-out rally in the fourth began when Marcell Ozuna reached base on an infield hit. Ozuna made it to third when Justin Bour singled to right and scored when J.T. Realmuto bounced a single up the middle.

"I thought I had a double-play ball," Chatwood said, "but it got through. ... It stinks, but that's baseball."

Dietrich followed with a single to load the bases. Rojas cleared them when he lined a three-run double off the glove of left fielder Ian Desmond, who turned the wrong way on the ball and recovered but not quite in time to make the catch.

"I know how they pitch me," said Rojas, who had the opportunity to see Chatwood's repertoire while going to a 3-2 count before grounding out in the second. "I know with runners in scoring position, they try to run that two-seamer in to try to get a ground ball, but I was ready for it. I didn't chase the ball inside. That ball was on the plate, and I put a good swing on it."

NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 26 minutes by rain. ... Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton and LF Marcell Ozuna were named co-National League Players of the Week. It was the second time Ozuna earned the honor, both this season, and the seventh time overall and third this season for Stanton. ... Rockies LHP Mike Dunn made his 500th career appearance. ... Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado was in the lineup after sustaining a bruised right hand Sunday that caused him to leave the game. ... Marlins OF Ichiro Suzuki pinch-hit in the ninth and grounded out, leaving him with a franchise-record 26 pinch hits, two shy of the major league record set by John Vander Wal in 1995 for the Rockies. ... Colorado RHP Tyler Chatwood, who allowed four runs, had yielded four runs in 19 2/3 innings in his previous four starts since returning to the rotation Sept. 5.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Miami   Colorado
Odrisamer Despaigne Player Tyler Chatwood
Win W/L Loss
6.0 IP 5.0
3 Strikeouts 5
7 Hits 7
3.00 ERA 7.20
Hitting
Miami   Colorado
Derek Dietrich Player Jonathan Lucroy
2 Hits 2
0 RBI 1
0 HR 1
3 TB 7
.667 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Miami 10 0 14 .278 21 5 5 6 0 0
Colorado 9 1 16 .273 14 7 4 3 0 1