Denver: Nolan Arenado homered and drove in five runs, German Marquez tossed seven strong innings and had two hits, and the Colorado Rockies’ slumbering offence 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. 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.
Arenado, Blackmon and Gerardo Parra, who was activated from the disabled list before the game, all had three hits.
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.
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.
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.
