MIAMI // Colorado maintained their hold on the National League wild card lead after Clint Barmes and Brad Hawpe hit two-run homers to help the Rockies beat the Florida Marlins 7-3 for a split of their double header on Sunday.
Jorge De La Rosa (11-8) struck out nine in 5 2/3 innings to get his ninth win in his last 10 decisions as Colorado remained 1.5 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the wild card race, and five games shy of the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
In Major League Baseball, the team that holds the best record in each league outside the three division winners is awarded the wild card play-off spot.
"Every win we can get is a big win," Barmes said. "There is no game we can give away at this point.
"We're battling for the wild card and we still think we have a shot at the division too, so every game is important. Losing two today would have been pretty bad."
Florida won the opener 10-3 as Chris Volstad (9-9) pitched five strong innings and added a two-run single in a five-run second inning.
Hanley Ramirez and Chris Coghlan also homered for the Marlins, who ended the day two games behind the Rockies in the wild card hunt.
"This is a very good baseball club that we just faced," Colorado's manager Jim Tracy said. "Their approach, to their credit, was relentless. We had to work really hard in the second game to win the game."
Rain on Saturday night forced the rare traditional double header to Sunday, with both games going back-to-back after a 30-minute break. Most double headers are now day-night affairs.
"To win a double header it's hard," the Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We left it all out there in the second game to get back in it."
De la Rosa allowed seven hits and just one unearned run, walking three to go with his nine strikeouts to continue his run of good form.
In the opener, Volstad got plenty of support, as the Marlins raced to a 6-1 lead after just two innings.
"The team did another great job of scoring runs," Volstad said. "You can't ask for anything more as a pitcher."
* Reuters
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202-litre%204-cylinder%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E268hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E380Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh208%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
