The Colorado Rockies scored early, but then went down bad in the early innings. They were down 7-0 after three innings, and things looked bleak. However, a career performance by Mickey Moniak and a mostly-steady bullpen kept them in the game. Unfortunately, though, the Padres broke through in the eighth to snatch the 9-6 victory.
Off the Márq
Germán Márquez struggled in his outing today, lasting just 2 1/3 innings before being pulled. He gave up back-to-back singles to the first two batters — Fernando Tatís Jr.
and Jackson Merrill. He then retired Ramón Laureano and Gavin Sheets, but walked Ryan O’Hearn to load the bases. As they do, the walk came back to haunt as Jake Cronenworth hit a bunt single to score Tatís, and José Iglesias hit a single to score Merrill and O’Hearn. That made the score 3-0 early.
Things didn’t get better in the second, as Ezequiel Tovar committed an error to put Mason McCoy on base. Tatís then singled again, and then Merrill hit a home run — his fourth in his last eight games — to double the score. Márquez did come back to retire the next three batters, though.
But in the third, he gave up three-straight singles again before getting McCoy to fly out to center. After a walk to Tatís — his third time on base in as many at-bats — Warren Schaeffer decided he’d seen enough and pulled Márquez after 71 pitches.
“I don’t think it was as bad as it looked,” Schaeffer said after the game. “Nine hits, seven of them on the ground. They played good small ball. You’ve got to hand it to the Padres, they played good small ball in that first inning. They had a clear plan on what they wanted to do and they executed it.”
In total, Márquez gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits with two walks and zero strikeouts. It was Márquez’s second-career with start with zero strikeouts, with the other coming on August 29th against the Chicago Cubs at Coors Field.
“It’s baseball, you know,” Márquez said. “I didn’t feel like I was hanging my pitches in the middle, so they got through and things happened.”
Moniak the Maniac
Blaine Crim has gotten a lot of attention this series, and rightfully so. But today, Moniak decided to shift the focus. In his first at-bat of the game, he hit a single and stole a base (but was unfortunately stranded). In his second at-bat in the fourth inning, he decided to take the score into his own hands by hitting a leadoff home run.
To do one better, he hit a three-run homer in the sixth to close the gap from 7-1 to 7-4 after Tyler Freeman was hit by a pitch and Tovar hit a single to break a 0-for-19 slump.
And then in the seventh, he hit another RBI single (after Tovar doubled) to bring the Rockies within one.
“I felt like I was seeing the ball well,” Moniak said. “I was able to kinda jump on two pitches to hit, put good swings on them, and after that, that’s kind of all you can control but today it worked out.”
Unfortunately, he was stranded when Crim was called out on strikes. Schaeffer went out to argue, but went back to the dugout without being ejected. He did, however, get ejected in the next inning on a borderline strike call on Kyle Farmer (who remained in the game).
“The inning before I should’ve gotten ejected with Crim,” Schaeffer said. “That bothered me. There were a couple of pitches late in the game that bothered me. I thought he took the ball out of our guys’ hands. But overall, I thought James Jean was good back there.”
With the single in the seventh, Moniak posted a career-high five RBIs. It also marked the second time in his career where he had four or more RBI, and he also became the second Rockie in 2025 to have at least four hits and five RBI in a single game. The other was Brenton Doyle on April 10 against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Not Quite Enough Belief
The Rockies made a good comeback in the later innings, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough. Roansy Contreras came in to relieve Márquez, and pitched 3 2/3 clean innings with just one hit — a single to Freddy Fermin in the fifth. Juan Mejia pitched the seventh, allowing just two baserunners — hitting Sheets and walking Cronenworth.
“We kept fighting today,” Schaeffer said. “This is a game we could’ve easily folded on — last game of a subpar road trip, down 7-0 after three. But the boys did not fold, and hats off to that. Hats off to everybody in that clubhouse for keeping on.”
Unfortunately, the luck ran out after that. Jimmy Herget came in to pitch the eighth to replace Mejia, and immediately gave up a double to McCoy. Tatís hit a sharp single to move McCoy, and then stole second to put himself in scoring position. That ended up paying off, because three batters later — after back-to-back big swinging strikeouts — Sheets hit a ground-rule double to score both and run up the score from 7-6 to 9-6. Ryan Rolison came in to close the inning, getting O’Hearn to fly out on two pitches.
In the ninth, four Rockies came to the plate, and three were sent down on strikes (two caught looking). Pinch-hitter Hunter Goodman reached on an error, but was stranded on second.
Up Next
The Rockies have an off day on Monday before starting their final homestand on Tuesday against the Miami Marlins. Kyle Freeland (4-15, 4.97 ERA) will take on right-hander Eury Pérez (6-5, 4.67 ERA). First pitch is at 6:40pm MT.
