DENVER — Germán Márquez had a career year in 2021. The Rockies think there’s still way more to come.

There are the mechanical adjustments that he needs to make — improved fastball command and a consistent changeup — but most are mental. Can he stay calm when he gets in a bind? Can he take the extra moment to take a deep breath, pull himself together and execute the pitch when he needs to most?

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That was manager Bud Black’s focus with Márquez during spring training. And on Saturday, they got a peak at what they’ve been working towards. He worked through seven innings, giving up only one run as the Rockies beat the Dodgers 3-2 for their first win of the season.

“It was a really good win,” Black said. “There was a lot of good baseball played today.”

Pitchers across the league have been on tight counts due to the shortened spring, Márquez included. But he was efficient all night, getting his business done in only 74 pitches. He’s just the fourth pitcher so far this season to make it through at least seven innings, joining Philadelphia’s Kyle Gibson, San Diego’s Sean Manaea and Seattle’s Robbie Ray on the short list on the third day of the season.

Márquez started off brilliant in the first, needed only seven pitches, all fastballs, to get three quick outs. Márquez gave up one of those hits in the second, when Justin Turner connected with the curveball for a single. Edwin Ríos also got one base, but Márquez got Cody Bellinger to ground out to end the inning. Márquez, facing his first traffic of the season, was able to successfully get through it.

He kept to his new mantra: pitch by pitch, out by out and inning by inning.

“I thought the focus and concentration was as good as I’ve seen from Germán,” Black said. “I thought all around good stuff. Everything you can say about a great outing, it was there today from Germán.”

Márquez did that throughout the night, never allowing more than one runner to get on base at a time. His only slip-up came in the third inning, when Austin Barnes worked him into a full count and then hit his fastball into the center field stands.

As for that fastball command, it looked stronger than it did at this time a year ago, when he was consistently throwing it too high. Staying in Denver over the winter helped with the transition back to altitude for that pitch, he said. The changeups he threw were efficient for the first time ever, Black said. It’s a new grip, and it’s one he’s finally been able to get work for him.

“I need to test it out a little more,” Márquez said. “Today was good, I’m going to keep throwing it.”

The Rockies’ offense scored only three runs, but that’s all they would need thanks to Márquez shutting down the Dodgers high-power lineup. Ryan McMahon knocked in one of those runs for the Rockies in the fourth, and Connor Joe did the same in the sixth.

But Alex Colomé, making his Rockies debut, got an early lesson in the wonder that is Coors Field. He struck out Cody Bellinger, but then allowed the bases loaded. He was taken out, and Carlos Estévez came in to clean up the mess.

It was Connor Joe that saved the day, hitting a home run — the first of the season for the Rockies — in the bottom of the eighth to give the Rockies the lead. Joe said it was the second biggest moment of his career, behind only his first major league home run, which he hit last year on the one-year anniversary of him being declared cancer free.

“It was game two of 162,” Joe said. “Obviously it’s good to get the first win, especially against the Dodgers.”