DENVER (AP) — A day off led to a big night for Nolan Arenado. The rest of the Colorado Rockies followed his lead in a breakout victory.
Arenado returned to the lineup with a homer and drove in five runs, German Marquez tossed seven strong innings and had two hits, and the Rockies’ slumbering offense awoke in a 12-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.
Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu also went deep as Colorado broke out of prolonged slump to give manager Bud Black his 700th career win. The Rockies banged out a season-high 17 hits and were 7 of 14 with runners in scoring position. They hit just .226 and .216 with runners in scoring position while losing 12 of their previous 15.
“I think we are more of that team that we saw tonight than what we’ve seen in the last couple weeks,” Black said.
Arenado, Blackmon and Gerardo Parra, who was activated from the disabled list before the game, all had three hits.
Arenado took a rare day off Thursday and said he woke up Friday morning with more energy. He showed it with several hard hits, including a 450-foot homer to left that give the Rockies a 10-1 lead in the sixth.
It was just his second home run since June 3 and the first since he hit one to complete the cycle on Father’s Day.
“It felt great. I feel like I hadn’t done it in a long time,” he said. “My second at-bat, I lined out and my third at-bat I thought I hit the ball hard and I was like, ‘Oh, man, what’s going on?’ It was nice to hit one out.”
Marquez (6-4) cruised through six innings before allowing Tim Anderson’s 451-foot two-run homer in the seventh. He allowed three runs and nine hits, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter while tossing a season-high 102 pitches.
“He worked fast, he was throwing strikes,” Black said. “That was a well-pitched game.”
Chicago’s Derek Holland (5-9) gave up seven runs and eight hits in just four innings in his first career start at Coors Field. The first seven Rockies reached base against him in a four-run first inning.
Colorado added two more runs in the second when Marquez led off with a double and scored on LeMahieu’s fourth homer of the season. Blackmon hit his 19th, a solo shot in the fourth, to make it 7-1.
“Today was just flat-out embarrassing,” Holland said. “I put my teammates in a hole, gave up four runs right out of the gate. Then they put up a run for me and of course I go back out there and give up another run. It’s a frustrating thing on my part.”
Marquez led off the sixth with a single and Arenado connected for his 16th off reliever Chris Beck to make it 10-1. Arenado added a two-run double off David Robertson in the eighth and the Rockies celebrated Black’s milestone win.
He is the 12th active manager with at least 700 wins.
“Hopefully, there’s more of these to come from a team standpoint,” Black said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: OF Avisail Garcia was out of the lineup with a jammed right middle finger suffered in the three-game series against the Oakland A’s earlier this week. Manager Rick Renteria said Garcia, the team’s lone All-Star, is day to day. “It’s going to get better,” Garcia said. “See how it is (Saturday) and play on Sunday.”
Rockies: C Ryan Hanigan was a late scratch from the lineup with a tight muscle in his upper back. Black said Hanigan is fine and could start Saturday. ... RHP Chad Bettis will begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Hartford on Thursday. He will throw two innings or 30 pitches in his road back from testicular cancer. He threw to live hitters Friday and is scheduled to a side session Sunday. ... Parra missed a month with a right quadriceps strain.
UP NEXT
White Sox: LHP Jose Quintana (4-8, 4.45 ERA) is 0-1 with an 8.74 ERA in two interleague starts this season. He won his only start at Coors Field on April 8, 2014.
Rockies: RHP Jeff Hoffman (5-1, 4.01 ERA) will make his interleague debut against Chicago on Saturday. Hoffman won his last start, against Cincinnati on Monday.
