DENVER — Rockies Report, Game 135:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Eight of the first nine Chicago Cubs batters in the fifth inning reached base, powering a six-run outburst that proved decisive as the Cubs mashed the Rockies 11-7 in front of a decidedly Cubs-friendly throng of 33,747 at Coors Field on Friday night.

After falling behind 3-0 early on home runs from Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ, outfielder Yanquiel Fernández yanked the Rockies back into the contest, blasting a 426-foot shot over the center-field wall to score Brenton Doyle and trim the Cubs’ lead to 3-2. It was Fernández’s second major-league homer.

Colorado Crushed pic.twitter.com/jJO1Hb78PU

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 30, 2025

But Fernandez’s heroics were quickly erased — and then some — in a disastrous fifth inning that saw starter Germán Márquez chased in his return to the mound after missing the last month-plus with a biceps injury.

The Cubs quickly loaded the bases via a pair of singles and a walk. Pete Crow-Amstrong drove home Michael Busch with a sacrifice fly, and then the real deluge began, starting with an Ian Happ RBI double and a four-pitch walk to Nico Hoerner that loaded the bases.

That free pass ended Márquez’s night at 64 pitches. Jaden Hill entered and promptly surrendered a bases-clearing triple to Dansby Swanson on his first pitch. Two more singles followed, bringing the number of consecutive Cubs to reach base to five before Hill finally got Michael Busch to pop out to left field.

By that time, it was 9-2.

Colorado did roar back against the Cubs’ bullpen with one run in the sixth, a pair in the seventh and two in the eighth, with those runs coming on Kyle Farmer’s 422-foot blast off former Rox reliever Drew Pomeranz.

But in the meantime, the Cubs tacked on a pair of mammoth home runs — over 900 feet worth — at the expense of Antonio Senzatela, making his first appearance out of the bullpen after being moved there earlier this week.

Saddled with the second-worst ERA of 285 MLB pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched this year — only separated from the bottom by Austin Gomber, who was given his unconditional release by the Rockies earlier this month — the Rockies elected to move Senzatela to the bullpen earlier this week, with general manager Bill Schmidt telling The Denver Post that the veteran was “hurting the club” in his role as a starter.

Senzatela pitched three innings, yielding the two home runs. Aided by some nifty glovework from first baseman Warming Bernabel, he ended with a scoreless eighth inning. Victor Vodnik delivered a clean ninth inning to give the Rox a final chance.

Colorado is 38-97.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

In his first start since July 20, Márquez wasn’t himself, and one statistic tells the tale: He failed to record a strikeout for the first time in any of his 195 career starts.

Swanson’s 416-foot blast in the second inning put him and the Rox into a 2-0 hole, and heading into the fifth inning, it looked like he would

“He looked like he was just trying to get back into the swing of things, not necessarily feeling his delivery very well, it looked like,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It looked like his first game off the IL, for me, nothing to worry about. For me, just a part of the moving-forward process for him.”

Nevertheless, it was Márquez’s 12th loss of the season.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Warming Bernabel capped a freezing 0-for-5 night by grounding into a 5-3 double play with two on and none out in the bottom of the ninth, squelching any hope of a draamatic Rockies comeback.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 8 — Players in the Rockies’ lineup who recorded hits on Friday night; only Bernabel failed to reach base. Fernández, Doyle and Mickey Moniak each had two hits; Hunter Goodman had three.

WHAT’S NEXT: McCade Brown makes his second major-league start, looking for a better outcome than in his debut last Sunday. Javier Assad starts for the Cubs in a game that has a scheduled first-pitch time of 6:10 p.m. MDT.