SEATTLE — Charlie Blackmon added three more hits to his major league-leading total and drove in three runs, and four Colorado Rockies pitchers combined to one-hit the Seattle Mariners in a 5-0 win on Saturday night.
Colorado won for the seventh time in eight games to keep rolling atop the NL West and Blackmon wasn’t the only star.
Rockies starter Ryan Castellani, making his major league debut, began with four perfect innings. He was pulled after a hit batter and walk to open the fifth.
Castellani struck out three and threw 60 pitches.
Reliever Jeff Hoffman kept the no-hitter going until J.P. Crawford lined a single to center field with two outs in the sixth inning for the Mariners’ lone hit.
Hoffman (2-0) threw three innings before Yency Almonte pitched a perfect eighth and Phillip Diehl closed out the ninth.
Blackmon doubled twice, the second hitting the top of the wall in right field and barely missing a grand slam. Blackmon settled for a bases-clearing double to give Colorado a 3-0 lead. Blackmon has 25 hits in 14 games and raised his batting average to .446.
Daniel Murphy and Trevor Story also had RBI singles for Colorado.
Castellani relied heavily on his fastball and spotted a good changeup and breaking pitches when needed.
Castellani’s perfect streak ended when he hit Kyle Seager leading off the fifth. Daniel Vogelbach walked and Colorado manager Bud Black didn’t hesitate pulling Castellani. Hoffman got out of the only jam the Rockies faced with a double play and grounder back to the mound.
Seattle’s Nick Margevicius threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in his first start since sliding into the Mariners rotation. Margevicius was pulled after 61 pitches giving way to Seattle’s shaky bullpen.
Anthony Misiewicz (0-1) gave up two runs in one inning.
MAKE IT A DOZEN
Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 12 games lining a double to cap a 10-pitch at-bat in the first inning. Blackmon was hitless in his first nine at-bats of the season. Since then, he’s 25 of 47, a .532 average.
CROSSED UP
Seattle C Austin Nola was out of the lineup on Saturday after getting crossed up on a pitch from Yohan Ramirez late in Friday’s loss that hit him on the wrist. X-rays were negative, but manager Scott Servais said the wrist was swollen. The hope is Nola can return to the lineup on Sunday. Nola had a homer and double prior to getting hit.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: RHP Kendall Graveman will see a specialist early next week to determine what procedure to have after suffering a neck strain in his last start. Servais said whatever the treatment it will be a significant amount of time that Graveman is out of the rotation.
UP NEXT
Rockies: RHP German Marquez (2-1, 1.54) makes his fourth start and third against an AL west team. Marquez has allowed three earned runs in 13 1/3 innings over his past two starts, both victories.
Mariners: LHP Justus Sheffield (0-2, 9.39) makes his third start. Sheffield has not made it through five innings in either of his starts. Sheffield allowed just four hits but gave up four runs in his last start against Oakland.
