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German Marquez http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-jason-sanders-jersey , like the Colorado Rockies, has been much better on the road than at home this season.

The right-hander will try to pitch the Rockies to another road series win on Thursday afternoon against the Philadelphia Phillies. Vince Velasquez will start for the Phillies in the rubber match of a three-game set at Citizens Bank Park.

Marquez (4-6, 4.79 ERA) has a 7.71 ERA in seven home starts and opponents have a .989 OPS against him at hitter-friendly Coors Field. In six starts on the road, however, Marquez owns a 2.06 ERA, 1.086 WHIP and an .606 opponent on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

Marquez is coming off an especially bad home outing. He gave up three home runs in the third inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks (one each for Paul Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb and David Peralta) last Friday and was charged with five runs in four innings of work.

“The pitches were up,” Colorado manager Bud Black told mlb.com of Marquez. “You look at the inning he gave up three homers … those are pitches that hitters can elevate. If they square them up, they’re going to go out of the park.”

Marquez, 23, has faced the Phillies once. He earned a win by allowing just one run in six innings on May 23, 2017 http://www.vikingsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-mike-remmers-jersey , at Citizens Bank Park.

The Rockies improved their road record to 22-15 with an 7-2 win on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. However, Colorado (33-34) is still under .500 because the team is 11-19 at home.

The Phillies have won 21 of their 33 home games but need a win on Thursday to finish 3-3 on their six-game homestand. Gabe Kapler’s team is 3-8 in June and has not won a series in three weeks.

Velasquez (4-7, 4.95 ERA) pitched in the Phillies’ first game of the homestand, and he had one of the worst starts of his career. The 26-year-old gave up a career-high 10 runs on nine hits in just 3 2/3 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers last Friday. Velasquez’s season ERA jumped up by more than a run in the brief outing.

“When he came out, the velocity was down a little bit,” Kapler told mlb.com after Velasquez’s last start. “The stuff didn’t quite look crisp coming out of his hand. We were talking about it on the bench and wondering if he just wasn’t going to have his stuff.”

Velasquez is 1-0 with a 4.35 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies. He has 23 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings against the team.

Velasquez will have to deal with a red-hot Trevor Story on Thursday. Colorado’s shortstop extended his hitting streak to seven games on Wednesday night with a 3-for-5 performance that featured two doubles and two RBIs.

Story has had five straight multi-hit games and is hitting .467 during the seven-game streak. The third-year major leaguer has raised his batting average by 27 points and his OPS by 68 points in the last week.

Tennessee safety

Kevin Byard is hoping to scratch one more thing off his bucket list.

The second-year safety tied for the league-lead with eight interceptions and led the NFL with 10 total takeaways, though he has yet to reach the end zone. Byard sees no better time than Saturday when the Titans (9-7) visit the Kansas City Chiefs (10-6) in an AFC wild-card game in his postseason debut.

”I’m just hoping to get in the end zone this time I can get an interception,” Byard said. ”That’s just my whole thing, trying to help this team anyway I can.”

Byard just earned his second AFC defensive player of the week award for adding two more interceptions in a 15-10 win over Jacksonville in helping the Titans clinch their first playoff berth since 2008. Scoring off Alex Smith won’t be easy with the Chiefs quarterback having been intercepted only five times all season.

Coach Mike Mularkey believes Byard is the kind of player who can help the Titans win their first playoff game since January 2004. Mularkey also has no problem with how confident Byard is.

”He backs it up, that’s the best part about it,” Mularkey said. ”He’s not a big talker, trash talker. He’s not cocky at all. He’s a good football player http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-danny-shelton-jerseyy , has a lot of confidence. We all have a lot of confidence in Kevin. He deserves it. He shows if you do what you’re asked to do and you’re in the right place, good things happen and it continues to happen for him.”

The Titans took advantage of geography in making Byard the first pick of the third round in 2016 after he set a school record with 19 interceptions at Middle Tennessee where he landed after Kentucky pulled a scholarship late. His performance wasn’t enough to earn Byard an invitation to the NFL combine.

Once with the Titans, the 5-foot-11, 212-pound Byard impressed coaches and defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau with how quickly he picked up the complicated schemes. Byard started the final seven games of his rookie season. Byard didn’t get his first interception in the NFL until his 20th career game, but he’s the kind of safety that gets his hands on passes in bunches.

Byard picked off three passes in a win at Cleveland on Oct. 22, then he grabbed two more in a win over Baltimore on Nov. 5. That put him atop the NFL for a few weeks with six interceptions .

That’s a big reason why Byard won the fan voting to start at safety for the AFC in the Pro Bowl. But Byard wound up as an alternate after voting by coaches and players, though he said Pro Bowl safety Eric Weddle reached out to him after the roster was announced. He says Weddle told him to keep his head up and offered to watch film with him.

LeBeau isn’t about to compare Byard to safeties he’s coached in the past, like Troy Polamalu who’s among Byard’s football role models with Ed Reed and Brian Dawkins. That would be too much pressure for any young player. But LeBeau says like Polamalu, he knew quickly that Byard would do OK in the NFL.

”He’s a player that’s on the rise no question about it, and he’s playing great football,” LeBeau said.

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