Randy Vásquez, Padres handle Rockies in series opener

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SAN DIEGO — The season had gotten a little green for the San Diego Padres. As in, the color of one’s countenance when feeling ill.

Purple is the color the Padres needed to see at a time like this.

That is the color worn by one major league team. The worst one.

That is who came to Petco Park on Thursday.

And that is who the Padres got right against in the opener of a four-game series, as Randy Vásquez and three relievers held the Rockies scoreless and the Padres offense did enough to score a 2-0 victory.

This is the same Rockies team the Padres shut out for an entire three-game series in April.

That was the Padres’ first time keeping a team from scoring in a series of at least three games, the first time the Rockies had been held scoreless in a three-game series and the first time since 2017 an MLB team had accomplished a three-game series shutout.

The Rockies season got worse from there, as they won nine of their first 58 games. At 40-107, they could still finish with one of the five worst records in MLB history.

The Padres (80-67) are almost certain to make the postseason despite entering Thursday’s game having lost 11 of their previous 16 games. (The only team with fewer wins in that span, which dates to Aug. 24, was the 3-13 Rockies.)

The Padres sit in the fifth of six National League playoff positions and began the night three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. They were four games behind the Chicago Cubs in the race for the fourth seed and 31/2 games in front of the New York Mets. The Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants were games behind the Mets, who hold the final playoff spot and were the only one of those teams besides the Padres to play Monday.

Besides improving their standing, it is difficult to discern what Thursday’s game said about the Padres and how they might perform going forward.

They entered the game having gotten 15 hits and scored a total of seven runs in their previous three games, a series loss against the Reds.

On Thursday, they were facing a rookie named McCade Brown, against whom they had gotten five hits and scored six runs in 12/3 innings on Saturday at Coors Field.

Brown was making fourth career start and had not gone more than four innings nor allowed fewer than three runs in any of his first three.

He accomplished both Thursday.

The Padres’ first hit against Brown was Freddy Fermin’s one-out single in the third inning. Fermin went to second on a wild pitch and scored when Luis Arraez lined a two-out single into right field.

Jackson Merrill extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth with a home run sent the other way to left field.

And Arraez’s second hit, with one out in the fifth, ended Brown’s night.

Jaden Hill proceeded to strike out Manny Machado and Gavin Sheets and also got through the sixth inning without allowing a baserunner.

Jimmy Herget followed with a 1-2-3 seventh. Arraez’s third single of the night, off Victor Vodnik in the eighth, was the Padres’ only hit after the fifth inning and their sixth in the game.

What can be known with certainty is that Vásquez dominates the Rockies.

In his first major-league start in nearly a month, he held the Rockies to three runs (two earned) in six innings on Saturday. It was his second quality start of the season at Coors Field.

He was even better at sea level, as he struck out nine batters in six innings Thursday. That was three more than he had ever struck out in a game in any of his previous 48 career starts.

Vásquez pitched around an error by Manny Machado and a single with two outs in the first inning, navigated a lead-off double in the second and allowed just two singles the rest of the way in his eighth quality start of the season.

It is by no means just the Rockies against whom Vásquez has been effective. The Padres have won 16 of the 26-year-old right-hander’s 26 starts this season. Only Nick Pivetta has been on the mound at the beginning of more victories, as the Padres are 17-12 in his starts.

Jeremiah Estrada, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez worked an inning apiece to finish the Padres’ 16th shutout of the season and first since July 30. Five of those shutouts have come against the Rockies.

Before beginning a series in Minnesota on Aug. 29, the Padres’ 46-24 record against teams with losing records was best in the major leagues. They have since gone 4-6 against the Twins, Baltimore Orioles and Rockies. Three of those victories have come against the Rockies.