Rockies pummel Padres in impressive offensive display

DENVER – For the second straight game, the Colorado Rockies offense put up 12 runs against a divisional opponent in an impressive display of execution up and down the lineup.

This time, though, the pitching also held up their end of the bargain, leaving out th dramatics found in the series finale against the Giants.

Starter German Marquez was good if a bit inefficient and the bullpen was solid in a comfortable 12-2 win over the San Diego Padres.

The first salvo was fired in the bottom of the third when Trevor Story hit a blistering drive into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer. It was his team-leading ninth of the season.

Then things got crazy in the bottom of the fourth. It began innocuously enough with back-to-back singles from Ian Desmond and David Dahl to put runners at the corners.

In the ensuing at-bat, Garrett Hampson squared around to bunt on a fastball that ran in and hit him on the right hand. Initially ruled a foul ball, the umpires decided to award him first base after all only for a long series of conferences with both managers to end up seeing the reversal reversed.

Hampson remained at the plate and drew a walk to load the bases anyway. Tony Wolters pulled one hard to the right side that required a diving stop from the second baseman but his throw was offline and everyone was safe on an RBI infield single.

That’s when Marquez delivered a body blow. The Silver Slugger from a year ago hadn’t done much at the plate so far in 2019 but looked locked in from the start in this encounter, hammering a 1-1 fastball into the pull gap for a bases-clearing double to put his team ahead 6-0.

Strikeouts from Story and Nolan Arenado made it look like that would be it but Daniel Murphy added another pair of runs with a line drive double to right center field and Desmond cashed him in with his second single of the inning.

Dahl struck out to end the hit parade and as the dust cleared the Rockies took a 9-0 lead into the fifth.

The Padres answered with a pair of runs on a quartet of singles against Marquez in an inning that also ran up his pitch count.

He stayed on to record two more outs but a single from Greg Garcia chased him from the game before he could finish the sixth.

But Colorado was determined not to let the lead slip away as they had the day before and came back with another big inning in the eighth, playing three more runs on singles from Blackmon and Story and a triple for Arenado who scored on a groundout from Murphy.

That made it a 12-2 game and that was the final.