After a thrilling back-and-forth affair on Tuesday night, the Colorado Rockies hoped to snag a win in San Diego to wrap up the road trip. Unfortunately, the bats fell silent as strikeouts were abundant and Colorado fell 3-1.
The Rockies also went 0-7 when playing in San Diego this season.
Another day at the office for Hughes
Similar to his last outing against the Washington Nationals, Gabriel Hughes was dominant through the first three innings of the game. After giving up a leadoff double to Fernando Tatis Jr in the bottom of the first,
Hughes retired nine batters in a row with two strikeouts.
The Padres cracked through their second time through the order in the fourth inning. The first three batters in the inning reached to load the bases. Jackson Merrill then singled into center field to give the Padres a 1-0 lead and keep the bases loaded. Luis Rengifo drove in a run with a ground ball to first, followed by Gavin Sheets’ sacrifice fly to right field to give the Padres a 3-0.
San Diego continued playing small ball in the fifth as Freddy Fermin had an infield single, Tatis walked, and Jake Cronenworth dropped a sacrifice bunt to put two men in scoring position. Manny Machado looped a ball out to left field that looked like a surefire sacrifice fly. However, Mickey Moniak came running in to make the catch and fired a bullet to home plate to cut down Fermin with an inning-ending double play. He came out to start the sixth but a leadoff single for Ty France ended his afternoon.
Hughes ended up going five innings, allowing the three runs on six hits with one walk. He managed just two strikeouts as San Diego was effective putting the ball in play, recording five ground outs and six flyouts
While it was another decent outing for Hughes, he did struggle getting ahead of hitters, and the amount of contact kept finding the holes.
“I thought Gabe was good,” manager Warren Schaeffer said, noting some traffic in the fourth. “It’s a huge learning experience for a young pitcher.”
He added, “Gabe is doing a great job.”
Struggling against Hart and Canning
The Rockies struggled to get things going offensively like they had done Tuesday night. Left-handed reliever Kyle Hart served as the opener for San Diego, and while they hoped he could just get through three batters, he ended up recording eight outs. The Rockies threatened with two runners in the first inning with two outs, but a strikeout of Willi Castro ended the threat. Hart ended up going 2.2 innings, giving up just two singles while striking out three and walking one.
He gave way to the veteran right-hander Griffin Canning, who continued to dominate the Rockies offense. Canning cruised through nine outs, collecting four strikeouts while giving up just one hit, a Moniak single in the fifth. Canning hit Cole Carrigg with a pitch to start the sixth inning but promptly picked him off first base for the first out. He then got Hunter Goodman to fly out to left field to end his afternoon. Wandy Peralta then entered the game and quickly struck out TJ Rumfield to end the sixth inning.
Lackluster offense
The Rockies finally got something going in the seventh inning. Castro and Tyler Freeman led off the inning with back-to-back singles against Peralta. Moniak popped out, and the Padres turned to Bradgley Rodriguez out of the bullpen to face pinch-hitter Troy Johnston. He struck out Johnston, but then Brett Sullivan came through with an RBI single to get the Rockies on the board. McCarthy had a chance to do more damage, but flew out on the first pitch he saw.
After Carrigg drew a walk to start the eighth inning, Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada struck out the next three batters, all swinging. Then, Mason Miller shut the door in the ninth with two strikeouts.
The Rockies offense couldn’t get anything done. Despite matching the Padres in hits with six, they struck out 14 times with just two walks. They couldn’t manage an extra-base hit, and the heart of the order went 2-for-11 with seven strikeouts. When the Rockies did have runners in scoring position, they went 1-for-5. Despite the Padres also going 1-for-9 with RISP, they put the ball in play and good things happened.
Bullpen boys step up
Pitching has been rough for the Rockies of late, particularly on this road trip, but not for Brennan Bernardino. He continued his dominant stretch this month after replacing Hughes. Despite the runner on first, Bernardino retired the next three batters with relative ease.
He then gave way to Zach Agnos, who worked quickly in his two innings. He retired all six batters he faced on just 20 pitches, 13 for strikes. Overall, the pitching was good for Colorado as the relievers were perfect alongside Hughes’ solid start.
Up next
The Rockies are off tomorrow and will open up a six-game homestand on Friday. The Kansas City Royals come into town first and will face Tomoyuki Sugano (10-4, 4.69 ERA) on the mound for Colorado. No pitcher has been announced for Kansas City.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm MDT.
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