Chad Qualls gives up late lead, Marlins dropped by Rockies
MIAMI (AP) -- Tom Koehler pitched another solid game against the Colorado Rockies. The Marlins just hold on for the victory.
Koehler allowed one run in seven innings and struck out five for Miami, which allowed two runs in the eighth inning including a tiebreaking RBI double by Ryan Weeler to give the Rockies a 3-2 win on Friday.
"He had good tempo tonight," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "He mixed his breaking ball in well. Sometimes he gets a little squirrely out there and walks a guy but he did what he needed to do with runs. He micromanaged that one run he gave up. With our pitchers, I know they feel like they have to go out there and be perfect every single night and it's tough to pitch like that."
Koehler also allowed one run in seven innings at Colorado on July 22 in a winning effort.
"Koehler is tough," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "It was the second time we've seen him. He's got good stuff and he pitched really well against us at Coors Field. It's tough for a young kid to come into Coors Field and do what he did. Watching him throw tonight from the first inning I was saying that it is going to be tough to score runs, this guy's got good stuff."
Jhouyls Chacin spent the week in Venezuela to attend his grandmother's funeral, but returned to Miami for his start against the Marlins on Friday.
Chacin (12-7) allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings while striking out five.
"I was real excited to pitch," Chacin said. "It was a tough situation back home, but when I got here I wanted to have all of my concentration to try to throw strikes and a lot of innings."
The Rockies trailed 2-1 heading into the eighth before Michael Cuddyer hit an RBI single to tie it and Wheeler hit a go-ahead RBI double to help Chacin earn the victory.
"I've dealt with a similar situation a few years ago too and you just want to come out and perform well for them," Wheeler said. "I think for (Chacin) to be able to come out for seven innings is huge. I know that his grandmother is watching down on him and helping him out. I'm glad we were able to get him a couple runs there and get him off the hook."
Adam Ottavino pitched the eighth and Lex Brothers picked up his 12th save in 13 opportunities.
"I like (Brothers) in the game period, I don't care if it's the seventh, eighth, or ninth," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "He's tough to hit so I like him in the game with the game on the line."
Cuddyer drove in two runs while Troy Tulowitzki extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the first. Wilin Rosario had his hitting streak snapped at 13 with an 0-for-4 night.
Ed Lucas homered and which has lost four in a row.
With the Rockies trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Tulowitzki got the rally started with a one-out double to center off Chad Qualls (4-2).
Cuddyer followed with an RBI single to score Tulowitzki to tie the game. After Rosario grounded out, Wheeler gave the Rockies a 3-2 lead with a double to center for his first RBI of the season.
"Qualls has been good for us all year but in that eighth inning he was up in the zone and couldn't close them out," Redmond said. "Too bad, it would have been a nice win. It was a close game but our offense was pretty quiet."
Brothers retired the Marlins in order in the ninth to preserve the victory.
Lucas' home run to lead-off the fifth broke a scoreless tie. It was his third home run of the season and the first since July 22 at Colorado.
DJ LeMahieu responded with a triple to begin the sixth and scored on a groundout by Cuddyer to tie the game at 1.
"After we score on a big home run by Lucas, I can't go out there and allow the guy who leads off to hit a triple and say, `Here you go, come right back in the game,'" Koehler said. "Shut down innings are really important in that situation to put them away and I have to do a better job of doing that."
Lucas had a chance to give the Marlins the lead in the bottom of the sixth, but grounded out to end the inning with the bases loaded.
Jake Marisnick tripled to right in the seventh and scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to give Miami a 2-1 lead.
NOTES: Rockies RHP Rafael Betancourt (elbow) will have an MRI on Monday after suffering an injury on Wednesday at Philadelphia. "It doesn't look great," Weiss said. "His elbow is pretty sore." ... Chacin ran into Marlins third base coach Joe Espada when backing up third base knocking Espada to the ground. "I didn't see him, I just ran over him," Chacin said. "I hope he's OK, I'm fine." ... Marlins phenom RHP Jose Fernandez (9-5, 2.41 ERA) will take the mound Saturday against Colorado RHP Jeff Manship (0-3, 7.80 ERA).