The Marlins’ annual trip to Denver ended with a thud Thursday night, and the final two games told a much different story than the first two.
Miami had looked sharp to open the 2026 series, piling up 24 runs across Monday and Tuesday while putting together a +14 run differential against the Rockies. But the last two contests flipped the script.
The Marlins went just 1-for-13 combined with runners in scoring position in those games, and that inability to cash in was too much to survive at Coors Field. In the finale, Miami finished 0-for-8 with RISP and dropped a 12-4 decision.
It was the Marlins’ first stretch of back-to-back losses since June 15 and 16 in Philadelphia. Clayton McCullough’s club falls back to four games over .500, though it still finished 2026 with a 5-2 record against its 1993 expansion counterparts, an improvement from last year’s 3-3 split.
Miami still had chances early against Michael Lorenzen, who was far from sharp but managed to limit the damage. The Marlins pushed across three runs on a pair of force outs and a sacrifice fly in two separate bases-loaded spots, but the big hit never came. Pedro Guerrero’s group scored four runs in the first four innings, then got blanked the rest of the way by three Colorado relievers.
Otto Lopez was one of the few bright spots for Miami, collecting three hits and coming up a triple shy of the cycle. It was his ninth three-hit game of the season. Javier Sanoja also stayed hot, adding two more knocks to finish a strong series and lift his season OPS to .741.
Lorenzen ended up allowing four earned runs in four and a third innings, and he walked six, but the Rockies were able to live with the traffic. Ryan Gusto wasn’t as fortunate.
The right-hander had command issues of his own, walking two and throwing 21 of his 50 pitches out of the zone, and Colorado took full advantage by going 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Gusto was chased after three innings as the Rockies kept pouring it on.
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