Marlins explode for 16 hits, beat Rockies for 1st win

Leadoff batter Miguel Rojas drove in three runs as the host Miami Marlins defeated the Colorado Rockies 7-3 on Saturday night for their first win of the season.

Rojas and Martin Prado each had three hits for Miami. The Marlins, who totaled just five hits in losing their first two games of the season, had 16 on Saturday.

Pablo Lopez (1-0), a 22-year-old right-hander making his 11th career appearance, allowed five hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. He struck out seven, walked none and also lined a key hit on offense.

Five Marlins relievers combined to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and no walks.

Tyler Anderson (0-1) took the loss. He allowed nine hits, no walks and five runs in five innings, striking out three.

Miami opened the scoring with two runs in the second. Lewis Brinson hit a double off the wall in left, advanced on Prado's infield single and scored on Curtis Granderson's sacrifice fly.

Lopez, a pitcher who can hit well, kept the rally going with a line-drive single on a 2-2 count, and Prado scored when Rojas hit an opposite-field groundball double down the first-base line.

Colorado tied the score 2-2 with a pair of third-inning runs. Garrett Hampson hit a leadoff single, Chris Iannetta was hit by a pitch, and Lopez balked. That set up RBIs for Charlie Blackmon (infield single) and David Dahl (sacrifice fly).

Prado singled and Chad Wallach doubled to start Miami's three-run rally in the fourth. Rojas stroked a two-run double, and Rosell Herrera slapped an RBI single for a 5-2 Marlins lead.

In the sixth, Colorado narrowed its deficit to 5-3 by stringing together three singles from Nolan Arenado, Ryan McMahon and Ian Desmond, who got the RBI.

Miami closed the scoring with two runs in the seventh. Starlin Castro scored on an RBI single by Prado, and Brinson came home on a squeeze-bunt RBI by Granderson.

--Field Level Media