Rockies sweep Miami for first series win of 2025
The 2025 Colorado Rockies just defied all odds and swept the Miami Marlins, who are still on pace to be the worst baseball team of all time. Their three straight wins secured the club’s first series win since Sept. of 2024, and their first sweep in over a year.
Game One
The Rockies brought a remodeled lineup to Miami, rolling out players like Sam Hilliard, Thario Estrada, Orlando Arcia and Keston Huira. Each joined the team in the last week.
Estrada, in his third game as a Rockie, drew first blood with an RBI double in the top of the first. Miami bounced-back later that frame, getting three runs off Colorado’s Germán Márquez along with a fourth an inning later. But the tail-end of Márquez’ start fused with the bullpen’s lockdown held the Marlins for the rest of the game.
The Rockies climbed back with help from two Hunter Goodman home runs in the next three innings, taking a 5-4 lead. Those were Goodman’s eighth and ninth bombs of the year, and brought his RBI total to a team-leading 34.
Once Márquez got removed after five innings of work, Colorado’s four arms out of the bullpen allowed just two hits. Hilliard’s insurance RBI in the top of the ninth was enough for Colorado to secure the 6-4 win. It snapped their eight game losing streak and marked just their third win in the opening game of their 20 series this season.
Game Two
Rookie Chase Dollander made his return to the mound on Tuesday after being on the 15-day injured list. He’d only go three innings, conceding two runs while walking three. The club likely had the 23-year-old on a pitch limit to not risk any further injury in his first start back.
The Rockies equalized the score 2-2 in the fifth inning, courtesy of RBIs from Beck and Estrada. Estrada has tallied three ribbies in his first five games in purple. The bullpen once again didn’t let up, and blanked the Marlins from the fourth inning on.
With a tie game in the eighth inning, Goodman hit his tenth home run of the year, giving the Rockies the go-ahead run. The 3-2 victory was their first series win of 2025. It had been 259 days since they took two out of three games, and no better way to do so than a late-game shot by the franchise’s future catcher.
“It’s big time for the boys,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said on the first series win. “Who would’ve known it wouldn’t come till June, but the time is now.”
Game Three
Colorado had an opportunity to complete their first sweep since May 15, 2024. They were facing Miami’s Cal Quantrill, who started 29 games for the Rockies last year in his one-year stint with the club.
He battled Colorado’s Kyle Freeland, who was still in search of the first win in his thirteenth start of the year. Freeland scraped together the best outing of his season, shoving six and a third shutout innings in just 90 pitches. He didn’t allow a walk while striking out four, and earning his first W.
The offense capitalized off Freeland’s lights-out performance, getting the scoring started in the first off a Goodman RBI triple. Beck followed it in the fifth with his 18th run batted in, and Brenton Doyle topped-off the Freeland innings with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
An error from Estrada led to Miami’s first score in the bottom of the seventh, and a fielder’s choice made it a one-score game. However, Rockies’ relievers Victor Vodnik and Tyler Kinley were able to sit down six straight Marlins’ hitters to close out the 3-2 victory.
“The bullpen has been really good,” Schaeffer said. “Today we had to rely on different guys in the back end, [Vodnik] can do it, and he did it, and [Kinley] can do it and he did it. It’s nice to have options down there.”
The Rockies carry three consecutive wins back home into a rematch with the New York Mets, who they just fell victim to before Miami. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. MT on Friday, June 6.