Rockies best Marlins in wacky 8-homer game

The Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies set one of the strangest MLB records on Monday night.

Colorado's 5-3 win marked the first time a game has ever been decided by eight solo home runs. In fact, heading into the night, five was the previous record.

Looking at the box score, most fans would've thought this game was being played at Coors Field in Colorado, not the pitcher-friendly confines of Marlins Park. In fact, the eight-homer mark set a stadium record for Marlins Park in a single game, too.

The most impressive thing about this game was the sheer pace in which the balls were flying out of the park. In a span of just 10 to 15 minutes, the score was already 3-2 in favor of the Rockies, with five long balls in the books.

Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton went back-to-back with two outs in the first inning to set the pace.

The Rockies were not down for very long. Trevor Story continued his impressive rookie campaign with a shot of his own before Colorado muscled their own back-to-back attack with Mark Reynolds and Nick Hundley leaving the yard.

Ozuna, having homered in Sunday night's game and once already in Monday's contest, sent another no-doubter into the left field seats to pull the Fish even in the bottom of the fourth. This marked his first multi-homer game of his career.

Two innings later, Reynolds followed by completing his own two-homer game when he smashed a 1-1 offering from reliever Brian Ellington over the left field fence.

Both teams had a number of opportunities to put some runs on the board from that point on, but a number of double plays and strikeouts with runners in scoring position left the game at a 4-3 standstill.

The Rockies' Charlie Blackmon added some much-needed insurance when he doubled his team's lead with a big fly to center field.

Other than the obvious long ball in this game, it is noteworthy to mention that Paul Clemens made his Marlins debut, his first start in a Major League game since 2014 with the Astros. Clemens went five innings and gave up the three home runs in the second inning. He gave the Marlins a chance to win and could see some more playing time in the near future.

Another important mark was the fact that Stanton went 2-for-4 with a home run in the game. He has now hit in his last five starts and appears to be returning to form.

All-in-all, the Fish still took three of four against the Rockies and made some serious progress in the NL East standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Attendance: 18,187

Hero of the game: Mark Reynolds (.294)

Flounder of the game: Derek Dietrich (-.263)

Play of the game: Reynolds' 2 out homerun in the sixth (.186)