Rockies notch season-high fourth straight win behind German Marquez's solid start

Kyle Newman, The Denver Post on Jun 18, 2025

Published in Baseball

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Consider the Colorado Rockies on a full-blown heater.

Colorado won a season-high fourth consecutive game on Wednesday at Nationals Park with a 3-1 victory over Washington. German Marquez turned back the clock, Michael Toglia stayed hot, and the defense and bullpen came up clutch against a struggling Nats team that’s lost 11 straight.

The Rockies are now 8-8 in the month of June. Though they remain on pace to go 37-125, which would still break the 2024 Chicago White Sox’s modern loss record of 121, there have been encouraging signs over the past few weeks that Colorado might avoid infamy.

After five scoreless innings to start the game as both Nationals southpaw Mitchell Parker and Marquez dazzled, the action heated up in the fifth inning when Colorado took a 1-0 lead off Toglia’s homer.

It was Toglia’s third homer in two games after he went deep twice in Colorado’s homer-fest victory on Tuesday night. That gave Marquez some cushion, but the Nationals threatened in the sixth.

Marquez scattered six hits and two walks along with two strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, but Easy Cheese got into a jam with two outs and two on in the sixth. Ol’ reliable Jake Bird came in and induced a groundout to end the threat and keep it a 1-0 Colorado advantage.

Marquez, who scuffled to start the season, now has a 2.94 ERA over his last six starts. It’s the lowest ERA he’s posted in a six-start span since July and August of 2021, his All-Star season.

In the seventh, the Rockies made it 2-0 by manufacturing a run.

Orlando Arcia led off with a triple, giving Colorado an MLB-most 25 three-baggers this season. Then, with one out, rookie Ryan Ritter laid down a beautiful bunt on a suicide squeeze to score Arcia. Brad Lord threw a 95-mph heater right at Ritter’s face as he squared to bunt, but Ritter got the bunt down while falling to the ground.

In the bottom of the inning, Washington finally got on the board against rookie right-hander Juan Mejia. A two-out walk brought the Nationals’ best hitter to the plate, and James Wood delivered a double in the right-center gap to cut the score to 2-1.

But Jordan Beck got that run back in the eighth with a solo homer 398 feet to left field. After a seven-homer performance on Tuesday that tied the franchise single-game record, that gave Colorado 12 homers in the series, tying the club record for most dingers in a single series with the finale still to play on Thursday.

Over the course of Wednesday’s win, Colorado got plus defense in addition to premium pitching.

Arcia’s full sprawl to snare a line drive ended the third inning and stranded the bases loaded, saving Marquez from being tagged for at least one run, and possibly two. And in the seventh, two-time defending Gold Glove center fielder Brenton Doyle made a diving play on a sinking liner in the left-center gap to open the inning.

Following Meija, Tyler Kinley worked a scoreless eighth and Seth Halvorsen recorded his fifth save with a one-two-three ninth.

All of that put the finishing touches on Colorado’s first four-game win streak in over a full year. The last time the Rockies did so was from May 9-15, 2024, when they won seven straight.

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