"Javier Vazquez pitched six innings Saturday night and his fastball hit 92 miles an hour once, encouraging signs for a pitcher struggling to boost his velocity and overall performance.

But he wasn't ready to celebrate any positive steps after a 3-1 loss to the Rockies in front of 37,381, the largest Sun Life Stadium crowd since opening day's 41,237.

"I threw the ball well, I guess. It's still a loss and it's still disappointing,' Vazquez said after the Rockies snapped the Marlins' winning streak at four.

He worked out of an early jam, retired 10 of 11 batters at one point and hit 92 at least once on his fastball. But his downfall started when he singled to right in the fifth inning.

Vazquez advanced to third on Omar Infante's two-out single but he stumbled a bit coming around second. He was left stranded when Hanley Ramirez bounced out to end the inning, and his base-running adventures may have taxed Vazquez enough to affect his pitching.

After shutting down the Rockies the previous four innings, Vazquez gave up a leadoff double to Todd Helton in the sixth. Seth Smith followed with a double, but Helton only made it to third because he wasn't sure if left fielder Emilio Bonifacio would catch Smith's drive.

It didn't matter because both wound up scoring - Helton on Ty Wigginton's sacrifice fly and Smith on pitcher Jason Hammel's suicide-squeeze bunt. That turned out to be the difference in the game.

"Holding a team like Colorado to three runs, I think that's a pretty good outing,' manager Edwin Rodriguez said.

Ramirez went 0-for-4, dropping his batting average to .194. He has one hit in 17 at-bats on the homestand, and some in the crowd started booing him after he bounced out in the eighth inning.

"He's swinging at pitches out of the strike zone," Rodriguez said of Ramirez, who hasn't homered this season. "He's forcing the situation instead of letting the ball come to him and making them throw strikes.'

Vazquez, whose velocity stayed mainly in the 88-91 range, allowed three runs on four hits in six innings, an encouraging line considering that he walked four batters in the first two innings.

For the second consecutive night, Dexter Fowler led off the game with a walk and later scored on Troy Tulowitzki's single to center. Vazquez has allowed first-inning runs (seven total) in each of his four starts."