San Diego blasts five home runs as Colorado offense struggles
After two innings, the Rockies trailed San Diego 5- 0. It felt like 50- 0. And while the Padres’ dynamic offense continued to apply pressure, Colorado’s hitters barely registered a pulse.
The end result was a 13- 2 San Diego victory Sunday afternoon at Coors Field that dropped the Rockies back to .500, at 17- 17. They are 8- 10 at home, where they have lost eight of their past 11.
The Padres — who pounded out 17 hits, including five home runs — improved to 21- 15 and are firmly entrenched in second place in the National League West behind the uncatchable Los Angeles Dodgers ( 26- 10).
With Monday’s 2 p. m. ( MDT) trade deadline looming, the Rockies made a deal Sunday for righthanded reliever Mychal Givens to prop up their increasingly suspect bullpen, but it remains to be seen if they will make a deal for a bat to spark their inconsistent offense.
“It’s tough to say right now,” general manager Jeff Bridich said when asked if the Rockies could improve their lineup with a power bat or possibly with a more impactful catcher. “I think that offensively, there are some better days ahead. We’ve scored a decent amount of runs — if you compare us across the league. But I think everybody knows, internally in particular, that there are, collectively, better days ahead, moving forward with this group.”
Padres right- hander Chris Paddack entered the game 2- 3 with a 5.15 ERA but held the Rockies to two runs ( none earned) on five hits over six innings while striking out eight.
“Guys realize that we’re scuffling a little bit with the bats, and a lot of times players will try to do a little too much, come out of their approach, and it works against them,” manager Bud Black said. “I thought Paddack today pitched pretty well.”
Meanwhile, Rockies rookie right- hander Ryan Castellani, coming off the first win of his bigleague career, was blistered for five runs on six hits over two innings. The most hurtful blow was Eric Hosmer’s three- run blast in the first. Hosmer drove Castellani’s 3- 2 slider 435 feet to rightcenter.
“I think the changeup played a big factor that today — it wasn’t great,” said Castellani, now 1- 2 with a 5.24 ERA. “I didn’t throw too many of them and that’s been a huge pitch for me, in all my starts. I’ve thrown it early in the count, behind in the count. Not having that today hurt me and made me a two- pitch pitcher.”
By the end of the hot, breezy day in LoDo, the Padres launched four more home runs against Colorado’s bullpen: a two- run shot by Jake Cronenworth off the struggling Jairo Diaz in the seventh; solo blasts by Jurickson Profar and Trent Grisham off left- hander James Pazos in the eighth; and a 444- foot, two- run rocket by Josh Naylor off Phillip Diehl in the ninth.
The Rockies had only seven hits and their only extra- base hit was a double by Nolan Arenado in the fourth.
Colorado might have been shut out had it not been for Hosmer’s two- out throwing error in the sixth that scored Raimel Tapia and opened the door for Ryan McMahon’s RBI single.