Gavin Sheets crushed a two-run homer in the first inning to spark San Diego’s 24-hit attack, and the Padres routed the slumping Colorado Rockies 21-0 on Saturday night in Denver.
In the Padres’ largest margin of victory in franchise history, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Jason Heyward also homered. Jackson Merrill had four hits, and Elias Diaz and Luis Arraez had three hits apiece to help back Stephen Kolek (2-0), who tossed a complete-game shutout in his second major league start.
Kolek, who appeared in 42 games as a rookie reliever in 2024, gave up five hits and struck out seven. His only stress came in the sixth inning when Colorado had first and third with one out, but he got Hunter Goodman to hit into an inning-ending double play.
The Padres set a season high for runs and hits for the second straight night after Friday’s 13-9 win in Denver on 16 hits. Every position player except for reserve left fielder Brandon Lockridge (0 for 1 with a walk) had at least a hit on Saturday, and eight had more than one. San Diego’s 24 hits tied a franchise record.
Colorado has dropped eight in a row, including five straight on its homestand that ends Sunday. The Rockies have been outscored 63-18 in the five games.
The Padres jumped out to a lead in the first. Tatis and Manny Machado walked to put two runners on with one out. Merrill followed with an RBI single, Bogaerts loaded the bases with an infield hit and Machado scored on a wild pitch.
Cronenworth’s groundout brought home another run and Sheets hit a 439-foot homer into the stands in right to make it 5-0.
San Diego tacked on a run in the second on Arraez’s RBI single, then Cronenworth homered leading off the third, and Heyward’s three-run homer in the fourth ended Bradley Blalock’s night. Blalock (0-2) allowed 12 runs on 13 hits in 3 2/3 innings to balloon his ERA from 8.03 to 12.94.
The Padres kept adding runs against Juan Meija in the fourth. Diaz walked, Tatis singled, both came home on Arraez’s triple, and he scored on a Machado single.
San Diego’s eight-run inning was a season high, as were the eight hits in the fourth.
Tatis hit a three-run blast in the fifth, his team-leading ninth of the season, to cap the four-run frame that opened with Bogaerts’ homer.
Colorado catcher Jacob Stallings pitched the final two innings and yielded one run on two hits with no walks and one strikeout.
–Field Level Media
