The San Diego Padres have been a thorn in the side of the Colorado Rockies all season and were so again in the first of four on Thursday night.
German Marquez was phenomenal, pitching eighth innings, giving up two hard-luck runs on a grand total of two hits, and achieving a career high of 13 strikeouts. He walked just one batter.
He is the fifth pitcher in franchise history to strike out 13 or more batters in a game. He has 20 strikeouts and just one walk over his last two outings.
But his two hits couldn’t have been worse timed and the offense just could not get anything done behind him, squandering one of the best performances of the season when they failed to outlast the Padres, losing on a walkoff in the 13th.
The Padres took the lead in the second thanks to some good fortune and missed execution on the part of the Rockies. Hunter Renfroe became the first baserunner against Marquez when he hit a grounder away from the shift for a single. Austin Hedges followed with a line drive into right-center field that Charlie Blackmon appeared to misjudge off the bat, taking too direct of a route and allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall for a triple.
Not only did that allow the run to score, it meant that Freddy Galvis’ ensuing flyball to center could go for a sac fly, giving the home team an early 2-0 lead.
The Rockies scratched out a run in the fourth without the benefit of a hit. Trevor Story was hit by a pitch with one out and Matt Holliday followed that by drawing a base on balls. Carlos Gonzalez but a charge into one, driving it deep to center but it died in the marine layer just shy of the wall. Story was able to tag up and move to third which proved fruitful when Ian Desmond’s grounder to third was mishandled by Wil Myers, allowing him to score the Rockies first run of the game.
They tied it up in the sixth in a similar fashion, this time with Story reaching via a leadoff walk. Colorado finally got into the hit column when Holliday lined a single through the right side, moving Story to third. Gonzalez struck out but Desmond hit a grounder to third and was able to beat out a double play attempt, securing the game-tying RBI.
Marquez began the eighth with a walk of Galvis but didn’t let it get to him. He bounced back to get Manuel Margot to line out then struck out Cory Spangenberg and Travis Jankowski back-to-back to extend his own newly set career-high in strikeouts to 13.
Adam Ottavino came on in the ninth with the game still tied and began things in inauspicious fashion by losing the grip on a slider that ran inside and plunked Luis Urias. He came back to strike out Wil Myers but Urias stole second and Otto couldn’t find the zone early against Eric Hosmer, opting for an eventual intentional walk to get a righty in Renfroe to the plate.
It also meant bringing one of only two Padres to record a hit in the game to the plate with the winning run in scoring position.
Ottavino’s command continued to be an issue when he fell behind Renfroe 2-0. After a get-me-over slider was taken right down the middle, the power hitter reached for one out of the zone, rolling over it for an inning-ending double play.
Ryan McMahon, pinch-hitting, recorded only the Rockies second hit in the game to lead off the 10th inning. But Blackmon hit into a fielder’s choice, DJ LeMahieu struck out and, after an intentional walk to Nolan Arenado, so did Story, leaving a pair of runners aboard.
Seunghwan Oh worked a clean 10th, sending the game to an 11th inning.
The Rockies got their third hit with one out in that frame, a single from Gonzalez who moved into scoring position on a soft groundout from Desmond. Bud Black called for David Dahl, who was intentionally passed, then Chris Iannetta who hit a grounder to short to end the threat.
It was Scott Oberg’s turn in the bottom of the inning. Franmil Reyes greeted him with a line drive single to right field. Jankowski followed with a grounder up the middle to give the Padres their best chance of the night.
But Oberg got Urias to pop up and bunt attempt and Myers to ground into another double play that bailed the Rockies out of a tight situation.
Jake McGee allowed a single to Renfroe in the 12th but he was caught trying to steal second and the lefty reliever worked an otherwise clean inning around that.
Bryan Shaw got two quick outs in the bottom of the 13th and appeared to be ready to send it to still another inning but Reyes smashed a hung 1-1 slider over the wall in center field for his 12th home run of the season, a walk-off win for the Padres.
Final Stats:
German Marquez: 8 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
Adam Ottavino: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Seunghwan Oh: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Jake McGee: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB
Bryan Shaw: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
What’s Next:
The second game of the series sees Antonio Senzatela take on Brett Kennedy who is still looking for his first MLB win. First pitch at 8:10 Mountain Time.
