Opening the season against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers wasn’t the best scenario for a young Colorado Rockies team trying to move on from a busy offseason.
The Arizona Diamondbacks didn’t have it easy, either. They had to face the retooled and loaded San Diego Padres over the weekend.
Arizona and Colorado both lost three of their four games to open the season, and now they’ll hit the reset button against each other in Denver for a three-game series starting Tuesday.
German Marquez (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will square off against fellow right-hander Luke Weaver (1-9, 6.58 ERA in 2020), who is making his first start of the season.
Marquez started Opening Day against the Dodgers and struggled with his location. He walked six and gave up six hits in four innings but allowed just one run in a game the Rockies rallied to win. The day off between the end of the Los Angeles series and the start of the one against the Diamondbacks allowed manager Bud Black to send Marquez to the mound on regular rest.
Marquez has struggled with his fastball control throughout the spring, and he will try to fine tune it against a club he has faced often in his short career. In 17 career games against Arizona — 16 starts — he is 4-5 with 4.24 ERA.
He’s allowed nearly a home run a game against them (15), but he has 101 career strikeouts in his 93 1/3 innings against the Diamondbacks.
The Rockies already are dealing with some bumps and bruises. Raimel Tapia sustained a case of whiplash after hitting the outfield wall on Saturday night, but he was well enough to pinch-hit Sunday.
Moreover, third baseman Josh Fuentes has a sore wrist that flared up on him Saturday night and kept him out of Sunday’s game.
“He thought it might be OK when he got into the (batting) cage, but that wasn’t the case,” Black said after Sunday’s game. “So we’re hoping that the 48 hours will calm that wrist down and he’ll be able to play Tuesday.”
Fuentes has a hit in two at-bats against Weaver, who has some experience pitching against Colorado. In six career games against the Rockies, including five starts, he is 1-2 with a 7.40 ERA. He has allowed 17 earned runs in 20 2/3 innings.
His lone win against the Rockies came at Coors Field, where he holds a 7.62 ERA in four games, three of them starts.
Weaver was roughed up during spring training but hopes he can put it behind him and show why the Diamondbacks wanted him in the deal that sent Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis in December 2018.
He said he is ready to turn the page on his Cactus League outings and focus on the regular season.
“Through success, it’s hard to learn some things,” Weaver said after his start on March 25. “Through a little bit of a grinding spring training and getting hit around a little bit … definitely a lot to learn and I also think, ‘Hey we get them out of the way now, we don’t get them during the season.'”
–Field Level Media