DENVER — Jim Tracy thinks his middle infielders have few equals offensively or defensively, and Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes backed up their manager's words.

Jason Marquis allowed three hits over seven innings, Tulowitzki and Barmes homered and the Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-1 on Thursday.

Dexter Fowler had four hits — three of them doubles — and scored three runs, and Barmes finished with three hits and three RBI for the Rockies, who won the final two games of the three-game series.

Tulowitzki, who replaced Barmes as the starting shortstop two years ago, has 23 homers, one short of his rookie season total. Barmes has a career-high 17 homers.

"That's 40 home runs for the middle infield, and oh-by-the-way gold-glove defense," Tracy said. "I think the only other tandem you can speak of in that vein would be the two guys that play over in Philadelphia. We have something special going on."

Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley have one thing their counterparts in Colorado want — the World Series title the Phillies won last year. Barmes thinks this Rockies team, which leads the NL wild-card race by 1½ games over San Francisco, can get back to the postseason.

"Hopefully this continues and keep playing into October," he said. "That's the No. 1 goal."

The Rockies' pitching staff will have a lot to do with that.

Marquis (13-8) showed the form that earned him an All-Star selection this year by becoming the third pitcher in the National League to reach 13 wins. He'd been 0-2 in his previous three starts, but gave up one run and struck out six with three walks Thursday.

The Rockies made it 3-0 when Fowler doubled in the third and scored on Barmes' single.

The Pirates cut it to 3-1 on Andrew McCutchen's sacrifice fly in the fifth, but couldn't mount any more offense against Marquis. He ended his outing by getting catcher Jason Jaramillo to hit into an inning-ending double play on his 106th pitch.

"He pitched a good game, but when you get three hits you're not going to beat too many clubs," Pirates manager John Russell said.

Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm (6-7) settled down in the middle innings before the Rockies put it away in the seventh. Ian Stewart, who led off with a double, scored when Jaramillo tried to pick off Fowler at first. Fowler went to third on the play and scored on Barmes' two-run homer, his 17th of the year.

Maholm allowed seven runs on 11 hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings.