Rox dominating Padres at home
Colorado bullpen stepped up big, offense kept answering the bell in series-clinching 8-5 win Thursday
For a Colorado club struggling to get back to .500, having San Diego in town proved to be a muchneeded elixir.
The Rockies beat the
Padres 8-5 in Thursday’s matinee at Coors Field to win the four-game series. The bullpen stepped up big and the offense kept answering the bell.
With the victory, Colorado improved to 13-3 at home against the Padres since the start of last season. The Rockies also picked up a gust of momentum heading into the final series of the first half, against the Pirates this weekend in LoDo.
The fireworks started in the second when Rockies’ all-star C.J. Cron led off with a double. Padres southpaw Blake Snell then proceeded to lose his command, issuing three walks in the inning. Colorado took advantage with Randal Grichuk’s softly hit two
RBI double down the right field line and Connor Joe’s sacrifice fly to go up 3-0.
But Kyle Freeland gave two runs right back in the third, when early traffic resulted in a pair of sacrifice flies to make it 3-2.
Back-and-forth the teams proceeded to go. Colorado (41-49, fourth in NL West) scored two more runs in the fourth as Snell pitched himself out of the game with three more free passes, two of which walked in a run. By the time reliever Tayler Scott came in to stop the bleeding, Colorado was up 5-2.
San Diego stormed back in the fifth, however, and wrecked Freeland’s line. Trent Grisham led off with a solo home run to rightcenter. Three more hits plated two more runs to even the game 5-5.
Freeland was enraged after the inning ended, and used a bat to destroy a light on the ceiling of the dugout.
However, Freeland’s teammates picked him up in the sixth inning by finding a rhythm against San Diego right-hander Nabil Crismatt. Connor Joe got Colorado going with a oneout walk. That was followed by Jose Iglesias’ RBI double, Cron’s RBI single and Grichuk’s RBI double to make it 8-5.
The Colorado bullpen did the rest from there.
Veteran right-hander Jhoulys Chacin posted two scoreless innings, then rookie right-hander Jake Bird matched that feat. Right-hander Carlos Estevez shut the door with his first save of the year in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Thursday’s victory marked the third straight against San Diego, which won the series opener on Monday to snap a 10-game losing streak to the Rockies in LoDo.