Kyle Freeland pitched for six innings, Aaron Schunk hit his first major league home run, and the Colorado Rockies took advantage of four Marlins mistakes to beat Miami 8-2 on Wednesday night.
Nolan Jones had two RBI singles, and Drew Romo added two hits and an RBI for Colorado. Ezequiel Tovar also hit a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Derek Hill hit a home run for Miami, which has now lost 15 of its last 21 games.
Freeland (4-6) gave up two runs on six hits, struck out five batters, and walked one in his 200th career game. After allowing Hill’s home run in the second inning, he struck Hill out in the fourth for his third strikeout of the night and his 800th career strikeout, putting him fourth in franchise history.
Freeland also earned his 59th career win, moving ahead of Jason Jennings to be fifth in the club’s history for wins.
“It’s awesome. Obviously I’ve had a somewhat long career here as a Rockie, and starting to hit some milestones, creeping up some of these leader boards,” said Freeland, who is from Denver.
“It’s very nice to know that I’m posted up with some of those guys who I grew up watching and loving to watch. So, it’s really cool for me, as a kid, Kid Kyle, and adult Kyle.”
With the game tied at 2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, Schunk hit a home run on the first pitch he saw from Max Meyer, sending it 429 feet into the left-field bleachers.
“I feel like I’ve always had a good swing, kind of a line-drive double swing,” Schunk said. “But when I get them, I can get them. I was just hunting a good pitch, got one, saw it. Brain and body worked out together, got it done.”
Colorado added three more runs in the sixth inning, with help from the third of Miami’s four errors. Jones had his second RBI single of the inning and then scored when shortstop Otto Lopez threw the ball wide of catcher Nick Fortes, and it rolled to the backstop.
