Major League Baseball
Colorado 15, Miami 9
When: 3:10 PM ET, Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
Temperature: 53°
Umpires: Home - Alan Porter, 1B - Tripp Gibson III, 2B - Brian Gorman, 3B - Dan Iassogna
Attendance: 27497

DENVER -- Trevor Story made the Miami Marlins pay dearly on Wednesday.

The Marlins intentionally walked Nolan Arenado twice to get to the Colorado shortstop, and each time Story foiled the strategy with a two-run hit, helping the Rockies pound the Marlins 15-9 in the rubber game of their series.

The Rockies (86-73) moved closer to a postseason berth for the first time since 2009. They lead the Milwaukee Brewers (83-74) by two games and the St. Louis Cardinals (82-75) by three in the chase for the second National League wild-card spot. Both the Brewers and Cardinals were scheduled to play games later Wednesday.

After driving in three runs Tuesday, Story had four RBIs Wednesday, raising his total for the season to 80. He had a two-run single in the six-run second inning and a two-run double in Colorado's three-run fourth. Story has been batting fourth against left-handed starters and was hitting cleanup when the Marlins chose to intentionally walk Arenado, who leads the majors with 129 RBIs.

"I definitely understand the tactical part of that, for sure," Story said. "But I feel it's my turn to hit, and it's my job to get those guys in. So just go up there with a clear mind and try to hit a ball hard."

Ian Desmond added a season-high-tying four RBIs, hitting a three-run homer in the second and driving in a run with a two-out single in the fourth as the Rockies backed Jon Gray (10-4), who worked six innings and gave up three runs and six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

Gray allowed three or fewer runs in 13 consecutive starts, one shy of the franchise record set by Ubaldo Jimenez in 2010, and is 7-3 with a 2.64 ERA with 16 walks and 81 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings. Gray has won a career-high four consecutive decisions in his past five starts and owns a 2.10 ERA in that span.

Getting hits with runners in scoring position has been a problem lately for the Rockies, who had lost six of nine games entering Wednesday and went 11-for-58 (.190) with runners in scoring position during that stretch. They went 9-for-17 in such situations in this romp and took advantage of the Marlins' shoddy pitching. Seven of the 10 Rockies who walked ended up scoring, and they batted around twice.

Colorado sent 10 batters to the plate in a six-run second that put them ahead 6-0. Adam Conley (7-8) walked two batters to start the inning, and Desmond followed by lofting a three-run homer into the right-field stands, his seventh homer of the season.

After giving up a walk and a bloop single, Conley got his only out of the inning when Gray sacrificed. Conley then failed to cover first on Charlie Blackmon's run-scoring single to first baseman Justin Bour and was lifted in favor of Vance Worley.

With two outs, Worley intentionally walked Arenado, and Story grounded a two-run single up the middle. Conley, who was knocked out in the second inning Friday at Arizona, gave up three hits, three walks and six runs in 1 1/3 innings.

"He runs into a couple of good teams," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "Arizona is a good-hitting ballclub; he didn't seem to fool anybody there, and these guys also. ... That was probably his last one of the year. Maybe put him in the pen to see if we can let him get an inning in so he can walk off and feel good about it."

Gray gave up two singles to start the fourth and allowed a run on Derek Dietrich's one-out grounder to second that was hit too slowly to turn a double play. A.J. Ellis followed with his sixth homer, an opposite-field drive to left that cut the Rockies' lead to 6-3. After that inning, Gray received encouragement from catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who made a reference to the bathroom just below the dugout steps.

"He told me to go down in there, flush it down the toilet, come back, get back out there, it's a new ballgame," Gray said.

Indeed, he retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth.

"That was critical," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "They got it to 6-3, and with their offense and how they've been swinging it lately, there was a lot of game left. Very proud of Jon the way he bounced back. With the exception of the at-bat to Ellis, he threw the ball well."

Story doubled home two runs with one out in the fourth after an infield single by DJ LeMahieu and another intentional walk to Arenado, and Desmond followed with a single up the middle to make it 9-3.

After Colorado built a 14-3 lead, Miami scored seven runs in the final two innings, including three in the ninth when they greeted Jeff Hoffman with four straight doubles and clipped him for four runs.

NOTES: Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton, who leads the majors with 57 home runs, went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. He went 1-for-12 in the series and hit just two balls to the outfield. ... Rockies OF Gerardo Parra, who has one hit in his past 21 at-bats, did not play for the second straight game. ... Colorado CF Charlie Blackmon's two hits gave him 66 multi-hit games, tying him for the most in franchise history with Dante Bichette, in 1998. Blackmon drove in three runs, giving him 100 RBIs for the season. ... Rockies LF Ian Desmond hit his seventh homer of the season and second at Coors Field. The other was on June 16 off San Francisco's Jeff Samardzija. ... Miami LHP Adam Conley, who lasted 1 2/3 innings in his last start, was knocked out after 1 1/3 innings, the shortest start of his career in a game not delayed by rain.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Miami   Colorado
Adam Conley Player Jon Gray
Loss W/L Win
1.1 IP 6.0
0 Strikeouts 5
3 Hits 6
40.50 ERA 4.50
Hitting
Miami   Colorado
Tyler Moore Player Carlos Gonzalez
2 Hits 3
1 RBI 2
0 HR 0
3 TB 5
1.000 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Miami 14 1 22 .341 11 7 9 0 1 2
Colorado 14 1 21 .400 15 5 15 10 1 0