Colorado digs deep, finds victory
SAN DIEGO» The Rockies leveraged the longball to victory once again Monday night as a pair of milestone homers by recent callups, combined with a timely three-run jack by a veteran, paced Colorado to a 6-4 win over the Padres.
The game marked Colorado’s seventh time hitting at least three home runs this year, with six of those performances coming on the road, as the Rockies put Sunday’s season-high 15 strikeout showing in the rear view.
After the teams traded one run each in the first frame, a throwing error by shortstop Trevor Story with two outs in the fourth gave the Padres an unearned run and 2-1 advantage.
But Daniel Castro, starting at second base in place of the injured DJ LeMahieu, proceeded to even the game in the fifth when he golfed a sinker to left for his first home run with the Rockies and third of his young career.
Then, right fielder Noel Cuevas stepped to the dish three batters later and hit his own solo homer to left, the first of his career, to give Colorado a 3-2 lead.
San Diego came right back with an Eric Hosmer RBI double the next inning to even the game 3-3, but left fielder Gerardo Parra’s three-run dinger in the sixth tilted the scales back in favor of the Rockies for good.
Right-handed starter Tyler Anderson turned in a decent enough outing, yielding three earned runs on seven hits through 5 M innings.
From there, Bryan Shaw, Adam Ottavino and Wade Davis did the rest, with Ottavino striking out the side for the fifth time this season and Davis recording his major league-leading 15th save.