Last year on this very same weekend, the Rockies played the Padres. They outscored them 48-44 in four games and both teams set all sorts of crazy records. This time around, they played a three game set and the Sim Padres won the runs battle 23-22. In the first two games, the Sim Padres outscored the Sim Rockies 12-6, but the Sim Rockies came out swinging on Father’s Day to pummel the Sim Padres 16-11.
Sam goes Hill-yard ... three times!
Heading into Sunday’s game, Sam Hilliard was slashing just .180/.255/.380 with two home runs and 20 strikeouts. He exited Sunday’s game slashing .210/.279/.532 with five home runs and 23 strikeouts.
His first homer came in the second inning — a game-tying solo shot to left field. His second came in the fourth inning — another solo shot, this time to right-center, to make it 7-5 Sim Padres. His big fly came in the sixth inning — a three-run shot to dead center to give the Sim Rockies a 14-11 lead. Hilliard has always shown that he can hit for power, but the knock on him has been that he strikes out a lot. This week alone, he went 4-for-12 with three home runs, five RBI, three runs scored, one walk, and three strikeouts.
Other offensive highlights
Trevor Story and David Dahl also joined the home run parade with one apiece, bringing the Sim Rockies total to five on the day. Charlie Blackmon recorded a triple and Dahl and Nolan Arenado each had two-RBI doubles. Each of the Sim Rockies’ starting eight had at least one hit; Story, Arenado, Dahl, Hilliard, and Elias Díaz each had three apiece. Fuentes was the only Sim Rockies position player not to record a hit, but he went 0-for-1 with a walk and a run scored.
The poor pitchers
On the pitching side, the Sim Rockies were able to chase Zach Davies out after just 4 2⁄3 innings. However, Kyle Freeland only lasted 3 2⁄3 innings. He gave up seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits, walked one, and struck out four. He was relieved by Jeff Hoffman, who gave up three runs on four hits in his inning of work. He also struck out two batters, though.
Antonio Senzatela ended up being the pitcher of record, earning the win in 1 1⁄3 perfect innings. James Pazos, Tim Collins, and Carlos Estévez combined for the final three innings in which they only gave up one run (Collins) on two hits (Collins and Estévez), walked two (Collins), and struck out four (Pazos 2, Collins 1, Estévez 1).
San Diego’s bullpen was not so lucky. Davies was lifted for Luis Perdomo, who only lasted 2⁄3 of an inning and gave up five runs on two hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. He gave up the game-tying two-RBI double to Nolan Arenado to make the score 10-10. José Castillo was the one who gave up the three-run homer to Hilliard in his 2⁄3 of an inning (but was only on the hook for two of the runs), and Craig Stammen finished the final two innings in which he also gave up two runs on three hits. If you’re keeping track, Perdomo was the only Sim Padres pitcher to not give up a home run to Sam Hilliard.
Up Next
The Sim Rockies welcome the Sim Kansas City Royals to town for a three game set. Chi Chi González (2-6, 5.40 ERA) will take the ball for the Rox against Royal’s righty Heath Fillmyer (5-6, 5.74 ERA). First pitch is at 6:45pm MT and will be broadcast on Ben’s YouTube channel. See you then!