The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres this afternoon, 3-1, to take the four-game series in California and finish their season opening road trip above .500. Tyler Anderson, who struggled last Friday in Arizona, took a perfect game into the fourth inning and finished with no walks and no one runs allowed. It took the Rockies until the 9th inning to get on the board, as a bases-loaded walk to Ryan McMahon and a two-RBI single from DJ LeMahieu put them out in front for good. After allowing a leadoff solo home run to Manuel Margot, Wade Davis retired the next three Padres, two by strike out, to earn his fourth save of the season.
Emotional index
After a rough couple of starts in the first two games of the season, the win today combined with yesterday’s performance has to make Rockies fans feel better about Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson at the top of the rotation. Anderson pitched six shutout innings, allowing just four hits and no walks, a good bounce back from his first start in Arizona in which he allowed seven runs in 2 1⁄3 innings. Combined with Gray’s start last night that’s 13 scoreless innings with no walks and 11 strikeouts in the last two games for Rockies starters.
Key moment
With the bases loaded and nobody out against Padres closer Brad Hand in the ninth, Carlos Gonzalez struck out, swinging at some pitches out of the strike zone. That brought up rookie Ryan McMahon, who faced a similar approach from Hand but laid off the pitches out of the zone and worked a four-pitch walk, forcing in the Rockies first run and setting up DJ LeMahieu’s two-run single later in the inning.
Looking Ahead
The Rockies return home to Coors Field for the first time this season tomorrow to face the Atlanta Braves. Germán Márquez will throw out the first pitch of the home opener against Atlanta’s Brandon McCarthy. First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. MT.