Padres End Weird Week With 6-3 Loss In Colorado
- Updated: April 11, 2016
It’s been a weird week for the San Diego Padres. After setting the record for most scoreless innings to start a season, the bats woke up in a big way in Colorado. Maybe it’s the altitude, maybe it’s the opposing pitching, maybe it’s just the law of averages and the Padres were due to explode after being dormant for 30 innings. In any case, the Padres won the first two games of the series in Colorado by a combined score of 29-9. “We’ll get back to normal baseball here at some point” manager Andy Green said after the 16-3 win Saturday night. By comparison, the 6-3 score today was definitely more normal.
The scoring started with James Shields giving up back to back solo homers to Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado in the bottom of the first. Giving up home runs seems to be the new normal for the veteran Shields, who’s given up a lot of home runs since becoming a Padre. Can’t really blame him for giving up bombs at Coors Field though. That’s going to happen. The good news is that no one else reached base and the damage was limited to just the two runs
In the top of the second the Padres looked to rally quickly, with Melvin Upton Jr.and Christian Bethancourt reaching base. Adam Rosales, filling in for the injured Yangervis Solarte, brought in Upton with a double to make the score 2-1. In the top of the third, Jon Jay and Cory Spangenberg led off the inning with singles, with the runners advancing thanks to an error in the outfield on Spangy’s single. Later in the inning a sacrifice fly by Wil Myers brought in Jay and tied the game at two.
The Rockies regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a fielder’s choice. Charlie Blackmon beat out what could have been an inning ending double play and Tony Wolters scored from third. The inning could have been worse with slugger Gonzalez at bat and two runners on base, but Shields was able to battle and once again limit the damage. After the five innings the Rockies led 3-2.
Rockies starter Chad Bettis settled into groove in the middle innings at one point retiring 13 straight Padre hitters. The home team went into the bottom of the seventh with a one run lead, and Bettis was pinch hit for by Ryan Raburn who hit another solo homer off of Shields to give the Rockies a 4-2 lead.
Jabari Blash led off the top of the eighth, pinch-hitting for Shields, and drew a lead-off walk. He later scored on a Spangenberg two bagger, this time unaided by an error. That’s all the offense the Padres could muster, and the Rockies quickly got the run back and more on back to back home runs by Trevor Story and Carlos Gonzalez off of Brandon Maurer to make it 6-3.
After erupting for six runs in the ninth on Saturday night, the Padres weren’t able to rally against closer Jake McGee on Sunday, and the Rockies avoided the sweep. James Shields took the loss, although he pitched relatively well and kept the Padres in the contest against the high-powered Rockies lineup. Chad Bettis got the win for the Rockies.
The Padres play at noon pacific time on Monday against the Phillies in their home opener, with Andrew Cashner and Aaron Nola slated to be the starting pitchers.
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things San Diego Padres and the rest of the SoCal sports teams! All Cali, All the time!
Related Posts
About Guest Writer
