Ryan O’Hearn stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with two on and two out and the San Diego Padres trailing the Colorado Rockies, 4-2. O’Hearn faced Colorado closer Victor Vodnik with a chance to win the game with one swing of the bat. O’Hearn saw four pitches with the last two being changeups and struck out swinging, stranding Gavin Sheets at third base and Jackson Merrill at first base, to end the game.
The Padres jumped on top of the Rockies early with a run in the bottom of the first
inning. Manny Machado hit a two-out, solo home run off Colorado starting pitcher Tanner Gordon and it appeared to be a sign of good things to come for the San Diego offense. Instead, Gordon settled in and pitched six innings and allowed one run on two hits with one walk and nine strikeouts.
The Padres did not seem to have an answer for the Rockies starter or the relievers for that matter. San Diego did not fare much better against the Colorado bullpen adding three additional hits over the final three innings of the game. Machado led the offense with two hits and Luis Arraez, Sheets and O’Hearn each added a hit.
JP Sears started on the mound for the Padres and was cruising through the first three innings. He ran into trouble in the fourth inning when he found himself with two on and two out. Sears was facing Blaine Crim, who was recently called up for the Rockies, and he hit his first big league hit and home run with a three-run blast to left-center field to give Colorado a 3-1 lead.
Sears was still needing an out to get out of the inning and faced Kyle Farmer, who hit a solo home run to center field to extend the Rockies’ lead to 4-1. Sears finished his night after 4 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on five hits with a walk and eight strikeouts. All of the runs scored against Sears came via the home run.
The Padres had opportunities to score in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings and had two on and no outs in both frames. San Diego was unable to score in either inning and entered the bottom of the ninth still trailing, 4-1. In the bottom of the ninth, the Padres scratched out a run after Machado hit a one-out single. Sheets doubled to moved Machado to third. Ramon Laureano hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield to allow Machado to cross the plate, but was thrown out at first for the second out of the inning. That led to the Merrill walk and gave O’Hearn his opportunity in the ninth. San Diego plays Colorado, Saturday at 5:40 p.m.