SAN DIEGO — The Rockies walked the high-wire Monday night at Petco Park.
Their pitchers teetered and tottered. They walked 11 Padres batters. Count ’em, 11.
But somehow, someway, the Rockies held on to win 5-4, notching their fifth consecutive win.
The Padres loaded the bases in the ninth against Jalen Beeks on three walks but Beeks got Manny Machado to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.
San Diego had crept to within one run in the seventh on Jackson Merrill’s leadoff homer off reliever Jake Bird. When Bird issued back-to-back walks to Luis Campusano and Ha-Seong Kim, Colorado’s lead disintegrated until Justin Lawrence relieved Bird and got Luis Arraez to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Then Lawrence got the dangerous Fernando Tatis to ground out to third baseman Ryan McMahon.
But the Rockies’ walk-fest continued in the eighth inning when Lawrence walked three to jam the bases but escaped when Campusano popped out to center.
Elehuris Montero powered Colorado to an early lead. The first baseman drove in Brenton Doyle with a single up the middle in the second. Doyle reached on a walk, stole second and advanced to third on Jake Cave’s groundout to first.
Montero’s two-run double to left-center off Randy Vasquez sparked the Rockies’ four-run fourth. Back-to-back bloop singles by Charlie Blackmon and Ezequiel Tovar drove in the other two runs to put Colorado ahead, 5-1.
Rockies starter Dakota Hudson mowed down the Padres with his bowling ball sinker for 5 2/3 innings until he threw a few gutterballs. He issued a two-out walk to Machado and then served up a two-run homer to Jurickson Profar, who crushed his seventh bomb of the season to cut Colorado’s lead to 5-3. The switch-hitting Profar, who played with Colorado last season, hit Hudson’s first-pitch changeup deep into the right-field seats. Profar has already driven in 29 runs.
Hudson induced 10 outs via groundballs, struck out three, walked three and gave up three hits. However, two of the three hits were homers, including Xander Bogaerts’ two-out solo shot in the second.
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