June 29, 2021: Germán Márquez throws a ‘Maddux’ at Coors Field, and hits two doubles

It is a universally acknowledged truth in baseball that pitching at Coors Field is challenging.1 The thin air allows baseballs to fly farther once hit, and the reduced movement on off-speed pitches makes the pitchers’ arsenal less effective.2 Yet some pitchers succeed there—Germán Márquez being one. Not only was he a top contributor to the Colorado Rockies from his arrival by trade in 2017,3 he signed a contract extension to stay with the Rockies beyond his free-agency years.4

Márquez entered this late June 2021 game with a 6-6 record and a 3.99 ERA. The 26-year-old right-hander’s overall record disguised his success at home—a 5-1 mark at Coors Field. His last two starts had been outstanding—a total of 14 innings pitched while allowing only three hits and one run.5 He had pitched one complete nine-inning6 game in his career, on April 19, 2019, at San Francisco. He had allowed only one hit on 105 pitches—almost a “Maddux” (complete-game shutout on fewer than 100 pitches7).

Halfway through the season, the Rockies (32-47) were fourth in the National League West Division, already 18½ games behind the San Francisco Giants. The visiting Pittsburgh Pirates (29-48) were in last place—16 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.8 Recent history generally favored the visiting Pirates. Since 2015, including the previous night’s game, the Rockies were only 4-14 at home against the Pirates.9

Márquez took the mound on a cool night—64 degrees at gametime. Adam Frazier, second in the NL in batting average, hits, and doubles, stepped in. He hit the ball hard—but first baseman Joshua Fuentes dove to the right and snagged the liner. Fuentes’ spectacular catch earned him a tip of the cap from Márquez, who needed only five more pitches to finish the frame.

Chase De Jong (0-2, 4.94 ERA) was pitching for the Pirates. He was a true journeyman—the Pirates were the 28-year-old righty’s seventh professional organization, but this was only his 17th major-league start.10 He had faced the Rockies in Pittsburgh on May 30, allowing only three hits and one run in five innings.11 He was equally efficient as Márquez in the bottom of the frame—a clean inning on 10 pitches.

Gregory Polanco opened the second by grounding softly back to Márquez. Márquez then plunked catcher Jacob Stallings squarely in the ribs. He apologized to Stallings. Stallings remained on first as Phillip Evans lined out to Charlie Blackmon in right. Kevin Newman was out at first thanks to a great throw by Ryan McMahon from beyond the third-base line.

The Rockies scored all the runs they needed in the bottom of the second. Trevor Story faced a “three-infielders-to-the-left-of-second” shift.12 He avoided the shift—but was out anyway on a fly ball to center. McMahon hit a bouncer that rolled under second baseman Frazier’s glove. Initially scored as an error, it was changed to a hit later during the game. Garrett Hampson’s double off the right-field fence scored the first run and Fuentes’ single scored the second. Elias Díaz, who had played for the Pirates from 2015 through 2019, grounded into a double play to end the inning with the score 2-0, Rockies.

The next three half-innings were uneventful—neither pitcher allowed a baserunner.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Rockies had three baserunners but failed to score. Blackmon singled to right. With one out and McMahon at bat, De Jong’s pickoff bounced off Blackmon’s leg and bounded to the side wall. Blackmon scrambled to his feet and made it safely to third. McMahon bunted about 10 feet in front of the plate, and Blackmon ran for home. De Jong grabbed the ball and flipped it to catcher Stallings, who tagged Blackmon on the hip before he could get his leg to home plate. McMahon made it to third on Hampson’s single but was left there when Fuentes grounded into a force at second.

After striking out Stallings to open the fifth, Márquez allowed his first walk, to Evans. He still faced the minimum since Newman grounded into a double play.

Díaz started the home half of the fifth with a blast—a 451-foot home run, his second in as many games.13 Márquez rolled a ball down the third-base line for a double and advanced to second on Raimel Tapia’s groundout. Yonathan Daza also grounded out to second—Márquez made a move toward home and then thought better of it.

That decision paid off—Blackmon’s swinging bunt went about four feet and Stallings’ throw to first was a half-step too late, allowing Márquez to score. Story’s 700th career hit was a double against the center-field wall, scoring Blackmon. De Jong got out of the inning by striking out McMahon, but the Rockies led, 5-0.

Márquez worked another one-two-three inning in the top of the sixth, striking out Erik González, who was pinch-hitting for De Jong. Given that Márquez hadn’t allowed a hit, the Rockies’ TV broadcasters, Drew Goodman and Ryan Spilborghs, allowed themselves to say “something special could be brewing in Denver,” but following superstition, didn’t actually say the word “no-hitter.” The Pirates’ broadcasters, Joe Block and John Wehner, had no such compunctions—mentioning “no-hitter” frequently.

Cody Ponce, who had been called up from Triple A the day before,14 took over the pitching for the Pirates in the bottom of the sixth. Fuentes was credited with a one-out hit on a ball that barely evaded first baseman Evans’ dive; he moved to second on a wild pitch. Márquez doubled to left-center—the ball rolled to the track, allowing Fuentes to score. Márquez, who received Silver Slugger honors in 2018 for a .300 batting average, had his sixth career two-hit game and first-ever two-double game.15 Tapia followed with another run-scoring double for a 7-0 Rockies lead.

Ke’Bryan Hayes nearly broke up the no-hitter in the top of the seventh. He bounced a ball off the back of the mound, but Story lunged for it, grabbing it just before it hit the second-base bag and throwing in time to get the out at first. The other two outs of the inning, a strikeout of Ben Gamel and Polanco’s lineout, were much less dramatic.

The Rockies added their final run in the seventh. Blackmon lined a ball to right that landed fair by inches and rattled around in the right-field corner. That stand-up triple was his second of the year—both against Pittsburgh.16 Story again faced the “three-infielders-on-the-left” shift—and beat it by lining a hit to center to score Blackmon. Two strikeouts and a fly out ended the inning with the Rockies leading 8-0.

The box score for the first play of the eighth inning reads “Lineout—SS.” That prosaic statement understates the drama of the play. Stallings’ liner was indeed caught by Rockies shortstop Story—when he was four feet in the air. Story’s well-timed leap prevented a sure hit. The 27,915 fans, a full-capacity post-COVID crowd,17 resoundingly cheered the play—as did Story’s teammates, some of whom jumped as well. The Rockies TV announcers said that if something special happened here tonight, that would be the play that made it possible.

The crowd was beginning to cheer each pitched strike and bemoan each ball. The next two outs, although they required six pitches each, were a routine fly out and groundout. Even with the 17 pitches thrown in this inning, Márquez’s pitch count was only 86—there was no doubt he would be back for the ninth inning.

Díaz singled on the first pitch of the home half of the eighth. Márquez followed with a groundout to the pitcher—he ambled slowly down the first- base line and headed to the dugout as soon as the ball hit the first baseman’s glove. The crowd cheered as he came off the field. Two groundouts finished the inning,

Márquez returned to the mound for the ninth. The first batter was Pirates left fielder Ka’ai Tom, drafted by the Cleveland Indians in June 2015, then claimed by the Oakland A’s in the December 2020 Rule 5 draft, then taken on waivers by the Pirates in April 2021.18

On the second pitch, the 27-year-old Tom, batting .131 entering the game, ended the no-hitter with a clean single to center. The crowd gave Márquez a one-minute standing ovation. Tom wasn’t on first very long—pinch-hitter Michael Pérez grounded into a double play on the next pitch. Frazier grounded out to second to end the game on the 92nd pitch.

This game was a great example of Márquez’s pitching ability—taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning and pitching a complete-game shutout in under 100 pitches—a “Maddux.” This was his third complete game of 2021, —the most thrown in the major leagues in 2021. His Bill James Game Score19 was 89—the second highest of his career through 2023.20 The game was played in an efficient 2:18, well under the average 2021 game time of 3:11,21 and the shortest nine-inning 2021 game for the Rockies.22

Márquez was named as the Rockies only representative to the All-Star Game.23 He finished 2021 with a .264 batting average and was named a Silver Slugger finalist.24

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin. 

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org and viewed the home and away TV broadcasts on mlb.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL202106290.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2021/B06290COL2021.htm 

Notes

1 See, for example, Daniel Strain, “It’s Outta Here: The Physics of Baseball at a Mile High,” colorado.edu, July 7, 2021, https://www.colorado.edu/today/2021/07/07/its-outta-here-physics-baseball-mile-high.

2 David Kotin, “Coors Field’s Impact on Pitch Movement,” May 11, 2021, baseballcloud.blog, https://baseballcloud.blog/2021/05/11/coors-fields-impact-on-pitch-movement/, Adam Maahs, “An Analysis of Pitch Movement at Coors Field,” January 11, 2019, fangraphs.com, https://community.fangraphs.com/an-analysis-of-pitch-movement-at-coors-field/.

3 He pitched in six games in September of 2016 as a September call-up. In 2017 through 2021, his Baseball Reference WAR was in the top five for the Rockies.

4 Associated Press, “German Márquez, Rockies Agree to $43M, Five-year Contract,” Usatoday.com, April 6, 2019. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2019/04/06/rockies-rhp-marquez-agree-on-contract-through-2023-season/39309929/.

5 His third-previous start on June 12 had been disastrous—12 hits and nine runs in five innings at Cincinnati—a .500 team at that point. His next start, against division-leading Milwaukee on June 17, was a definite bounce-back—one hit, no runs in six innings pitched. He continued that success at home on June 23 against Seattle—two hits, one run in eight innings.

6 He had pitched two complete games earlier in 2021, but they were both less than nine innings.

7 MLB.com, https://www.mlb.com/glossary/idioms/maddux, accessed September 6, 2023.

8 They finished the season in the same positions in their divisions.

9 The Pirates swept the Rockies in four-game series in 2019 and 2015, and in a three-game series in 2016. The Pirates had a winning record only in 2015. Playing in Pittsburgh, the teams split each series in 2015-2021 (they did not play each other in 2020) for an overall record in Pittsburgh for Colorado of 8-10.

10 He didn’t lose his rookie status until the 2020 season, although he pitched in the majors starting in 2017. In addition to pitching in the majors for Seattle, Minnesota, Houston, and Pittsburgh, he had pitched in the minors for Toronto (which drafted him) and Los Angeles. He also pitched for the Sugarland Skeeters in 2019 and 2020.

11 He left with a 3-1 lead but the Pirates bullpen couldn’t hold the lead so he received a no-decision.

12 That shift was legal through 2022, impermissible starting in 2023.

13 This was his second of four games in a row with a home run.

14 Associated Press, “Indians’ Naylor Likely Out for Season after Leg Injury,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 29, 2021; D3.

15 Márquez recorded his seventh career two-hit game on August 17, 2021, against the San Diego Padres. Through the 2021 season, he had a .241 batting average in 212 career at-bats, with 2 home runs and 30 RBIs. Unless he changes positions in the future, he will not have an opportunity to add to these totals, given the universal designated hitter rule beginning in 2022.

16 He finished the year with four (three at home), well under his 2017 major-league-leading 14 triples in 2017. All but one of those were at Coors Field.

17 In 2020, fans were not allowed in the parks due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 2021 season opened in all ballparks with limited attendance, with the attendance restrictions gradually lifted. Colorado Rockies Fans-in-the-Stands Protocols, June 1-20 [2021], https://www.mlb.com/rockies/fans/protocols-2021, accessed September 9, 2023.

18 Tom had only eight more plate appearances in his major-league career—seven in the next two games with the Pirates and one in a game with the San Francisco Giants in April 2022.

19 Game score is a metric created by Bill James to judge a starting pitcher’s effectiveness. The calculation starts with 50 points. Add one point for each out recorded (or three points per inning), two points for each inning completed after the fourth, and one point for each strikeout. Subtract two points for each hit allowed, four points for each earned run allowed, two points for each unearned run allowed, and one point for each walk. https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Game_Score.

20 His April 14, 2019, game at San Francisco earned a 94 score. Although he pitched only eight innings in that game, he had eight strikeouts.

21 Roshan Khatiwada, “MLB Average Length of Game by Year Since 2010,” mlbrun.com, July 9, 2023, https://mlbrun.com/mlb-average-length-of-game.

22 The Pirates played a shorter nine-inning game on April 23—by one minute.

23 Patrick Saunders, “Rockies’ Germán Márquez Earns First Trip to MLB All-Star Game,” www.denverpost.com, July 4, 2021, https://www.denverpost.com/2021/07/04/german-marquez-all-star-game-rockies/, accessed September 9, 2023.

24 Brian Murphy, “Silver Slugger Award Finalists Announced,” mlb.com, October 25, 2021. https://www.mlb.com/news/silver-slugger-award-finalists-2021. The award was won by Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves.