Marlins fall to Rox despite grabbing headlines

DENVER — The Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton hit the longest home run ever projected by Statcast™ at 504 feet, but Charlie Blackmon negated that with 810 feet of production on a season-high-tying four hits to lead the Rockies to a 12-6 victory on Saturday night at Coors Field.

Stanton’s 23rd homer this season — a tape-measure shot in the old days but one calculated by sensors in this era — off winning pitcher Chad Bettis gave the Marlins a 3-2 lead in the fifth. But in the Rockies’ seven-run sixth, Blackmon, who had homered to lead off the first inning (a 360-foot trot), tripled (a 270-foot sprint) in a run and singled (90 feet) in two more runs. Blackmon added another 90 feet on a single in the seventh and finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

“I’d rather consistently put pressure on their pitchers and defense and have a chance to score runs frequently rather than sit around and hope for a homer, or one big hit or two big hits a game,” said Blackmon, who entered on an 0-for-10 skien — something that hasn’t happened often during a season in which he’s hitting .306 with an .846 OPS.

When all the mathematics were done, the Rockies (55-55) finished the night three games behind the Marlins and the Cardinals, who are tied for the second and final National League Wild Card position.

“It hasn’t been perfect every night, but I feel like we’ve made the opposing pitchers work for every out that they get,” said Rockies manager Walt Weiss, whose team is 15-7 since the All-Star break.

Colorado and Miami will finish the three-game set Sunday afternoon, with more than standings on the line. The next hit for Marlins star Ichiro Suzuki, who reached on an eighth-inning infield single on Saturday, will make him the 30th MLB player to reach 3,000.

The Rockies took 13 turns at bat in the sixth, which opened with the first five hitters reaching against Marlins starter Andrew Cashner — four hits (Cristhian Adames’ single, Blackmon’s triple, DJ LeMahieu’s RBI single and Carlos Gonzalez’s RBI double) and a walk to Nolan Arenado. Cashner was charged with seven runs on eight hits. The Marlins went to lefty Mike Dunn to face rookie David Dahl, who singled in another run. Nick Hundley singled in another run, and Blackmon singled in two off Dunn.

“The two key hits, I thought, were for Hundley and then Blackmon after that to polish the inning off,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “If we could have held it to three or four, in this ballpark we could have …

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