SAN FRANCISCO — It was a sad sight to a sad ending in a sad season.
German Marquez, the Rockies’ proud right-hander, the longest-tendured member of the team, walked slowly off the mound in the fifth inning Friday night at Oracle Park. The crowd cheered wildly, but not because of anything Marquez had done. Giants third baseman Matt Chapman had just ripped off the 1,000th hit of his career.
Marquez did not pitch well in what was almost certainly his final game in Rockies purple. When he departed, the Giants led 5-3.
The Giants ultimately prevailed, winning 6-3 and sending the Rockies to their 117th loss of the season. The only National League team to lose more games in a season in the modern era was the 1962 Mets, who lost 120 games. Colorado’s 61 road losses are the most in franchise history, surpassing the 60 road losses of the 2014 club.
“I feel like things didn’t go like we expected,” an emotional Marquez said. “I worked the offseason hard … but there were a lot of ups and downs. If this was going to be my last game as a Rockie, I just want to say thank you to everybody. My teammates, coaches and fans. I love Denver.
“I know that things didn’t go well, but I just tried hard to be good and to give my best. I have to keep moving forward and doing my thing.”
Marquez, 30, made his big-league debut on Sept. 8, 2016, at age 21. Colorado’s always been his baseball home. But he will become a free agent at the end of the season, and Colorado has no plans to re-sign him. He is one of only two pitchers to appear in 10 seasons with the Rockies. Aaron Cook is the other.
Friday marked Marquez’s 200th career start, tied with Jorge De La Rosa for the third-most in franchise history. Marquez has 1,069 strikeouts, the most in franchise history, and he was an All-Star in 2021. He’s been a warhorse.
But he’s now a shadow of the pitcher he used to be after he missed almost all of the 2023 and ’24 seasons because of elbow injuries.
“I’m going to work hard this offseason and get back,” he said.
In 4 1/3 innings Friday night, Marquez gave up six runs on five hits — including a two-run homer to Willy Adames in the first inning and a three-run bomb to Heliot Ramos in the second — walked three and struck out just one. He finished his season 3-16 with a 6.70 ERA.
“I thought his fastball was good; he just had trouble with the breaking ball tonight,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said after the game. “But he battled, like he always does.”
Although Marquez started 26 games, he missed more than a month with biceps tendinitis. Since his return on Aug. 29, opposing hitters took batting practice against him. Too many of his pitches sat over the heart of the plate. In six starts, he was 0-5 with a 10.29 ERA, with 13 walks and just 10 strikeouts. He’s served up 10 homers in those six starts.
Before the game, Schaeffer talked about what Marquez has meant to the Rockies.
“I’m just so thankful for German and what he’s done for the organization, for so long,” he said. “We can’t forget all of the good times with ‘Marky.’ He’s done a ton here and I’m so thankful.”
Giants’ counterpart, Trevor McDonald, mostly dominated Colorado, striking out 10 over seven innings and giving up only five hits. But he didn’t dominate Rockies’ shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who crushed a 427-foot, three-run homer to center in the fifth inning. It was Tovar’s ninth homer of the season.
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