Rockies hang on to beat Padres, take second straight series

DENVER – After surprisingly taking the series against the NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies kept their little bit of late-season momentum going on Saturday night at Coors Field.

Hanging on to beat the Padres by a score of 11-10 after a late flurry from the visitors, the Rockies took the series after having beaten the Friars in the first game on Friday night, giving them two consecutive series’ wins.

The Padres got after Colorado starter Peter Lambert in the first for a pair of runs, taking advantage of some wildness from the rookie. Greg Garcia opened the game with a walk and after a couple of outs from Nick Martini and Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer did the same.

Wil Myers then made Lambert pay for the free passes by hammering a line drive into the left-center field gap for a two-run double.

The Rockies counter-punched in the third and took the lead thanks to a rally started by the bottom of the lineup. After outs were made by Ian Desmond and Garrett Hampson, Pat Valaika kept the inning alive and got the two-out rally started with a double to the left of Myers in center field.

Tony Wolters followed by slicing a second-straight two-bagger into the opposite field gap, scoring Valaika and getting the Rockies on the board at 2-1.

Lambert helped the cause by drawing a walk in a good at bat and Trevor Story kept it going with a bloop single to shallow center that tied the game. Daniel Murphy produced one more sinking liner to left to put Colorado ahead at 3-2.

The third inning began with a blast when Charlie Blackmon unloaded on a hanging breaking ball and launched it to right for his 28th round-tripper of the season. Desmond lined out and Hampson reached on a fielding error from San Diego starting pitcher Eric Lauer before Valaika hit another rocket to right.

Josh Naylor misplayed the ball allowing Hampson to scurry all the way home and Valaika to get to second. He came home on a single to center from Wolters who moved up on a sac bunt from Lambert.

Story walked, Murphy plated another run with his second straight low-liner to left and Nolan Arenado delivered the dagger by obliterating a pitch that hit high off the wall in right-center field for a two-run double that gave the Rockies a 9-2 lead.

The Padres got back into it in the top of the fifth after a single from Austin Hedges, a double by Seth Mejias-Brean, a triple from Nick Martini and an RBI groundout for Hosmer.

Colorado answered with doubles from Story and Murphy to make it a 10-5 ballgame.

The teams traded zeroes in the sixth and the Rockies picked up an insurance run in the seventh when Wolters was plunked, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a single from Murphy, his fourth hit in the game.

The home team took an 11-5 lead into the eighth but it shrank….

Lefty reliever Phillip Diehl gave up back-to-back doubles to Naylor and Luis Urias before being replaced by Wes Parsons, who walked Hedges before getting a groundout from Mejias-Brean. He then walked Garcia to load the bases, prompting Bud Black to call upon Bryan Shaw.

Shaw got Manuel Margot to ground out, which brought in another, but despite all that the Rockies still led by four. That is, until Shaw left a two-strike slider in the middle of the plate to Machado who hit it just over the scoreboard in right for his 30th home run of the season. The three-run shot suddenly pulled the Padres to within a run.

Jesus Tinoco came in for Shaw, but wouldn’t need to record an out as Wolters caught Jankowski trying to steal to finally bring an end to the eighth.

Tinoco stayed on for the ninth with Colorado’s top relievers unavailable. He began with a strikeout of Myers before walking Naylor to put the tying run aboard. He didn’t panic, though, and got a groundball out of Urias that turned into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.