Almost-perfect Lyles dominates
Rockies don’t reach base until eighth vs. former teammate
SAN DIEGO» Last year, as a member of the Rockies, Jordan Lyles was a walking dumpster fire. He posted a 6.94 ERA in 33 appearances out of the Rockies’ bullpen, often performing in mop-up duty amid a chorus of boos until he was designated for assignment July 29.
But the shaky Jordan Lyles seen in three-plus seasons in Colorado was not the same Jordan Lyles on display Tuesday at Petco Park, where the right-hander came within five outs of a perfect game in a 4-0 victory over Colorado. Trevor Story‘s line-drive single to left field with one out in the eighth inning produced the Rockies’ first baserunner.
“No doubt, he was on,” Rockies manager Bud Black said of Lyles. “Early in the game, it was a lot of fastballs, a lot of cutters. Then, as the game progressed, the good breaking ball that he possesses showed up today, for sure.”
Lyles’ final line — 7L innings, one hit, one walk, 10 strikeouts — earned him a standing ovation from the sparse crowd at the conclusion of an outing in which he consistently worked ahead, throwing first-pitch strikes to 21 of 24 batters.
“He was just attacking,” Story said. “He was getting ahead early and putting us behind quick. He was mak-
ing good twostrike pitches.”
Meanwhile, Rockies starter German Marquez pitched decently, too, despite another rough first inning in which he yielded a tworun homer to Eric Hosmer. But after that, the righthanded Marquez settled in, working around traffic and not allowing any more runs through five innings.
As Lyles continued to baffle the Rockies, the tension within Petco Park rose, as did the outcry on Twitter, where Colorado fans were wondering why he never pitched this well in purple and why the Rockies couldn’t seem to figure him out.
Lyles said the best outing of his eight seasons in the major leagues wasn’t made sweeter by the fact it came against the team that cut him loose last season, although he did note facing former teammates multiple times through the lineup made it more interesting.
“It would have been sweet regardless,” Lyles said. “I know a lot of those guys personally very close, and I had some fun today with them going back and forth, especially with Tony Wolters,” who formerly caught Lyles with Colorado.
The Padres added another tworun homer in the sixth, this time by third baseman Christian Villanueva off a struggling Chris Rusin, who has an ERA of 9.00 during his last nine innings in relief.
“(German’s) stuff was good, but they jumped him early, and then the big blow was the homer off Rusin on a firstpitch fastball to Villanueva,” Black said. “That got us to 40, and that was a little bit too steep to climb.”
By the time the Rockies finally did get something going in the eighth, it was too little, too late. Lyles walked Pat Valaika and left the game, replaced by reliever Kirby Yates, who struck out Wolters for the second out. Enter Padres closer Brad Hand, who walked Charlie Blackmon to load the bases. But Ian Desmond lined out to center field to strand the runners. Hand remained in the game and set down Colorado in order in the ninth.
The Rockies (2320) have been shut out four times this season.
“We were trying to attack right back,” Black said. “We just couldn’t square them up.”