The Colorado Rockies’ offense showed their potent potential in San Diego on Wednesday night, drubbing the home San Diego Padres by a final of 11-3. Ian Desmond hit his first two home runs in a Rockies uniform, part of a three-hit day, and joined three other Rockies with multi-hit games as they tied their largest margin of victory of the season.
The Rockies got out to a fast start against Padres’ starter Jered Weaver. Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a double, which was followed by a single by DJ LeMahieu, a double from Nolan Arenado, and Desmond’s first home run. Just like that, the Rockies led 4-0 before even taking the field. The Padres got a run back in the bottom of the first on Yangervis Solarte’s sac fly.
In the fourth, the Rockies tacked on three more thanks to some questionable San Diego defense. Dustin Garneau led off the inning with a double, the only legitimate hit they would get. Starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela then bunted and everyone was safe after first baseman Wil Myers double clutched on the throw to third. The adventures with Myers continued a batter later when Blackmon hit a ground ball that went right through his legs into right field. That error was compounded by Hunter Renfroe’s throwing error that allowed Senzatela to score and Blackmon to advance to third. Blackmon scored as well on an Arenado sac fly to make it 7-1.
An inning later, things really got out of hand. Desmond’s second homer and a pair of RBI singles from Garneau and LeMahieu made it 10-1 at the halfway point. Weaver was chased from the game in the fifth with no outs after allowing 10 runs (five earned) on ten hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two as his ERA ballooned to 5.51 on the year. San Diego was able to get a few runs back in the bottom of the fifth inning on a solo home run from Erick Aybar and an RBI double from Myers to cut the deficit to 10-3.
Senzatela would last six innings in this one, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts. It was his fourth quality start in five outings as he moved to 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA on the year.
Another run was tacked on by the Rockies on a Blackmon double in the seventh to conclude the scoring as Chris Rusin and Chad Qualls combined to finish out the game with three scoreless frames. The pair of relievers allowed only one hit while striking out four.
The win improved the Rockies to 17-11 on the year while the Padres fall to 12-17. The rubber match of the series is tomorrow afternoon at 1:40 pm mountain time. Kyle Freeland takes the ball for the Rockies against Luis Perdomo of the Padres.