Oh by the way, Marlins score 11

Al Leiter was going for a no-hitter.

Leiter (6-2) was breaking Colorado bats and making their hardiest hitters, men like Dante Bichette and Andres Galarraga, look increasingly silly as the game wore on. He was getting better with every batter, and he got an ovation just for striking out in the seventh. He got a bigger one for ending the eighth by catching Jason Bates' pop-up in front of the mound, basket-style.

History was knocking and an appropriately large Joe Robbie Stadium crowd of 31,549 was feeling it.

So was Leiter. The man with the sizzling stuff, $8.6-million contract and mediocre career record gave this franchise its first no-hitter Saturday night, lending beauty to an already attractive 11-0 Marlins victory.

The ninth inning went like this: Jayhawk Owens, meager groundout to first, bedlam; Quinton McCracken, groundout to second, bedlam; Eric Young, strikeout, and the deepest, throatiest, happiest ovation JRS has heard ever for a baseball game.

``It was a feeling of jubilation,'' Leiter said afterward, ``jubilation and relief and exhaustion.''

The Rockies, who had two walks and a hit batter, didn't come close to getting a hit. Hit-wise, the only at-bat that mattered was Walt Weiss' in the seventh, when he led off with a grounder down the third-base line that rolled about two feet foul. Weiss then popped to catcher Charles Johnson, who made the catch straining against the backstop.

McCracken's groundout in the ninth forced Craig Grebeck, the Marlins' utility man pressed into a starting role because of Quilvio Veras' injury, to range well to his right. Grebeck made the play with no problem.

``That ball was well hit,'' Leiter said. ``Everything came together. We had great defense all around, a great connection between me and [Johnson]. Everything clicked.''

Leiter only needed 102 pitches -- normally about six innings' worth for him. He had enough left to make 1995 MVP candidate Bichette look foolish -- twice -- during a seventh-inning strikeout, and then to get Galarraga swinging.

``It's an emotional thing,'' Marlins Manager Rene Lachemann said. ``How many chances do you get for a no-hitter?''

By the way . . . the Marlins hit well, too.

Leadoff batter Devon White made the Marlins' first out of the first inning. On a more positive note, he also made the third out.

In between, the Marlins dumped six runs on Rockies starter Mark Thompson, triggering the blowout. The Marlins, who hadn't scored more than seven runs in any of their first 37 games, had eight midway through the second inning.

Johnson turned what would have been simply a pleasant first inning into a powder-keg with a three-run home run, his second in two nights and sixth of the season.

By the second inning, No. 3 batter Greg Colbrunn had two hits, No. 4 Gary Sheffield had two walks, and No. 5 Jeff Conine had one of each and three RBI. Sheffield's final line: 0 for 1, three walks, one hit-by-pitch, three runs.

More than simply avenging their worst loss of the season, the Marlins doled out a more subtle slap to the Rockies' face by moving ahead of their expansion brethrens, in terms of winning percentage. Florida is 17-21 (.447), Colorado 15-20 (.429).