Padres homer early, often, enjoy rout of Rockies

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — This was the laugher the Padres needed.

A string of uninspired offensive performances had prompted their manager to declare they needed to enjoy themselves more after Friday night’s loss to the worst team in the major leagues.

On Saturday, the Padres had the kind of game that lifts spirits.

Home runs by Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill contributed to a flood of early runs, as the Padres scored in each of the first four innings before cruising to an 11-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

The victory allowed them to gain a game on the team directly in front of them in the National League wild-card race and would at least keep them where they were in relation to the NL West lead. They hold the fifth of six NL playoff spots, 3 1/2 games behind the Cubs, who lost earlier in the day. The Dodgers, who entered the night with a 2 1/2-game lead in the division, led the Giants late Saturday.

It would take a practically historic collapse for the Padres to not make the postseason. And Saturday was one victory over a team that fell to 41-108, the worst record in MLB by 16 games.

But it felt necessary.

And it felt necessary to do it the way they did it.

In winning for the fifth time in eight games but also the fifth time in 13 games, the Padres got 12 hits. That was five more than in any of the previous five games on this homestand.

Saturday was just the 10th time this season they hit even three home runs, which is tied for the second fewest such games by a team this season. It was just the second time Machado, Merrill and Tatis all homered.

Machado, who had gone 0 for 16 over the first four games of the homestand, homered for the second consecutive night and also drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single.

Dylan Cease (8-11, 4.59) allowed a run in the first inning and then was only briefly even stressed as he finished six innings for the first time in six starts.

The Padres split the first two games of the series, as their bats were largely muted the previous two nights by two starters they had pummeled last weekend at Coors Field.

The Padres scored both runs in their 2-0 victory Thursday off starter McCade Brown, a rookie who entered the game having not pitched into the fifth inning or allowed fewer than three runs in any of his other three major league starts.

Friday, they got two hits and scored once in six innings against Tanner Gordon, who entered the game with a 6.60 ERA in 12 starts.

On Saturday, they were facing the pitcher against whom they scored more than than they had against anyone ever.

Four months earlier, on May 10 at Coors Field, the Padres drove Bradley Blalock from the game after they had scored 12 runs in 3 2/3 innings.

The rookie right-hander did not make it that far Saturday. Neither did he allow that many runs.

Pitching in the major leagues for the first time since allowing the Diamondbacks seven runs in 3 2/3 innings on Aug. 14, Blalock (1-5, 9.00) surrendered five runs in three innings on Saturday.

He had a 1-0 lead before he took the mound, but that was gone by the time the first inning was over.

After Tatis popped out on the first pitch from Blalock, the Padres loaded the bases on a single by Luis Arraez and walks by Manny Machado and Gavin Sheets.

Catcher Hunter Goodman visited the mound as Ramón Laureano walked to the plate, and Blalock commenced throwing some strikes.

The Padres tied the game on Laureano’s sacrifice fly before Merrill flied out to end the inning.

Blalock’s pitches over (or near) the plate did not work out as well the next two innings.

A one-out single by Jake Cronenworth was followed by a long drive to right-center field by Elias Díaz that was caught by Mickey Moniak and a long drive to right-center field by Tatis that was not caught by anyone and gave the Padres a 3-1 lead.

Solo homers by Machado and Merrill in the third inning made it 5-1.

The Padres added four runs on a walk and four hits, including Machado’s single and a two-run double by Laureano, against Anthony Senzatela in the fifth.

Bradley Rodriguez surrendered two runs in the eighth before Bryce Johnson’s pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the inning provided the final margin.

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