The Rockies did immediate damage on Wednesday, but the bats went flat from there.
Colorado blew another late lead in the process, falling to the Padres, 3-2, in the Rockies’ 19th loss when leading after six innings this season. Chase Anderson pitched well for a second straight outing, but dropped to 0-6 on the year as he lacked run support after the opening frame at Petco Park.
“That’s a tough one,” manager Bud Black told reporters. “Chase pitched very well again. And Chase deserves better — overall, 16 starts for us and he hasn’t got a win. There’s been many times when he was position to get the win or pitched well enough to win. So it’s frustrating, for sure. We just couldn’t get a big hit.”
The Rockies pegged Seth Lugo for a couple runs in the first inning, using Brendan Rodgers’ solo homer and Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI infield single to take a 2-0 lead. Rodgers’ first homer of the season came off Lugo’s elevated fastball and sailed 407 feet into the left-center seats.
“I think there’s more of that (power) coming from B-Rod,” Black said. “He mentioned to the coaching staff, that he felt this coming. Hitters know when they’re close to contributions, and B-Rod’s in that space right now.”
San Diego countered with Juan Soto’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the inning, but from there, both starters settled in.
Lugo threw five scoreless frames after that and Anderson worked around traffic to put up zeros from that point until the Padres finally got to him in the seventh.
In that frame, a walk and infield single chased Anderson from the game. Justin Lawrence came on, gave up a bunt single to Matthew Batten, a bloop RBI single to Luis Campusano and then a sacrifice fly to Ji-man Choi to swing the lead to San Diego, 3-2.
Padres’ all-star closer Josh Hader got his 31st save of the season in the ninth, working around Brenton Doyle’s leadoff single to secure the sweep for San Diego. Doyle got to third base, but Hader got Rodgers to fly out to end the threat.
Colorado finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, the lone hit being Tovar’s first-inning single. The Rockies also left nine men on base.
With 10 games remaining, the Rockies head for a three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field starting on Friday, followed by a seven-game homestand against the Dodgers and Twins to close the season. The Rockies need to go 7-3 down the stretch to avoid their first 100-loss season.
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Pitching probables
Thursday: Off day
Friday:ย Rockies RHP Noah Davis (0-2, 9.58) at Cubs RHP Jameson Taillon (7-10, 5.27), 12:20 p.m., ATTRM
Saturday:ย Rockies RHP Chris Flexen (1-4, 6.75) at Cubs LHP Jordan Wicks (3-1, 2.67), 12:20 p.m., ATTRM
Sunday:ย Rockies LHP Ty Blach (3-2, 5.32) at Cubs RHP Javier Assad (4-3, 3.04), 12:20 p.m., ATTRM
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