Marlins' Drop Another, 5-3 To Rockies
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins are in desperate need of some help in the back half of the rotation and Thursday night's game against the Colorado Rockies just reinforced that fact.
Starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco pitched well through five innings and then two bad sliders and Nolasco and the Marlins went down to the Colorado Rockies, 5-3. The loss was Nolasco's sixth in his last seven starts.
"You make good pitches all night and then make a couple of mistakes and that's the game," said Nolasco, who pitched his first complete game of the season but lost for the sixth time in seven starts. "I just couldn't finish the job."
Nolasco (9-12) allowed five runs and nine hits. He struck out seven and walked one in eight innings to post his seventh career complete game.
Carlos Lee and Giancarlo Stanton homered for the Marlins, who have lost six of eight.
Nolasco had fanned Cuddyer twice on sliders, but he couldn't get him with the same pitch a third time.
Trailing by two, the Rockies tied it in the sixth. Carlos Gonzalez reached on a bunt single and Cuddyer followed with a two-run homer, his 16th of the season.
"I made two good sliders to him, but obviously, I didn't get that one down in the sixth," Nolasco said. "I left it over the middle of the plate and he's not going to miss that too often."
Colorado went ahead in the seventh when D.J. LeMahieu singled and then scored on Rutledge's triple. Eric Young Jr. put down a squeeze bunt up the first base line, scoring Rutledge and giving the Rockies a 5-3 lead.
"It was down, but it wasn't a good 0-2 pitch with a guy on third base with less than two outs," Nolasco said.
Adam Ottavino (4-1) earned the win in relief of Alex White. Rafael Betancourt tossed a perfect ninth for his 22nd save.
