When the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies get together, anything can happen, especially at Coors Field where games can quickly escalate into unruly slugfests.
That wasn’t the case tonight, however, when both teams’ pitching staffs silenced the opposing team’s offense in a game that can only be described as almost meticulous in its pitching.
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In the end, however, the Padres managed to eke out a 1-0 run win to kick off the three-game series in what would be only the 12th 1-0 game in the history of Coors Field, and just the fourth time the Rockies were on the losing end of one. (It last happened in 2006, when it happened three times!)
A Rockies pitching clinicOpener Jimmy Herget got the game off to a sparkling start by striking out the side (Ramón Laureano, Fernando Tatís Jr., and Jackson Merrill) on a tidy 14 pitches, 10 for strikes.
Chase Dollander took the mound in the second and was absolutely on fire with his slider and four-seamer especially effective.
In the third inning, Dollander struck out Laureano which began a string of six consecutive Ks until Miguel Andujar grounded out in the fifth. (For those keeping score at home, Germán Márquez set the Rockies record for consecutive strikeouts in 2018 with eight.)
The Padres did not have a player in scoring position until Jake Cronenberg hit a double in the sixth inning. And that’s when things got complicated for Dollander. Tatís Jr. hit a soft single, and then Dollander grazed Merrill, loading the bases for Manny Machado.
Dollander walked Machado on six pitches, and the Padres took a 1-0 lead.
View LinkHe came back to strike out Xander Bogaerts, but the Rockies were down in a game that had seen little offense.
After allowing the run, Dollander returned to pitch the seventh inning and retired the side after hitting Fermín.
His final line was 6.0 IP giving up one run, earned, on three hits. He walked one and struck out nine on a career-high 102 pitches, 67 for strikes.
Currently, Dollander has a 2.88 ERA in 25 total innings.
Also worth noting, Dollander’s nine Ks ties the Rockies record for strikeouts by a reliever, which was set by Bruce Ruffin in 1993.
“He was great tonight. What a well-pitched ballgame on both sides of the ball,” manager Warren Schaefer said. “He looks like a completely different guy this year.”
The Rockies turned to the bullpen in the eighth when Juan Mejia entered the game. He allowed one hit, but no runs.
The ninth inning went to lefty Brennan Bernardino. After getting two quick outs, he allowed a two-out single to Andujar followed by a Fermín double — only the second Padres extra-base hit of the evening. With the count 2-2, Cronenworth took a pitch that was called a ball. Goodman was quick to tap his helmet, and the call was overturned.
View LinkInning over.
In total, the Rockies pitching staff struck out 15 — the most strikeouts the Padres have recorded in a game this season. They issued only one walk and allowed one run (earned) on six hits.
A Padres pitching clinic, tooOn the Padres side of Coors Field, starter Randy Vásquez was dealing. Although the Rockies were able to get players on base in every inning until the fifth, none of them managed to get past second base.
Vásquez went 7.0 IP giving up just three hits and no runs. He struck out three and did not issue a walk and now has a 1.88 ERA.
“Vásquez was awesome. It was the cutter,” Schaeffer said. “We just didn’t have an answer for it tonight.”
View LinkFor the eighth inning, the Padres sent out Jason Adam, who easily handled the bottom of the Rockies order.
In an odd move, the Padres did not bring in stellar closer Mason Miller for the ninth. Instead, that duty fell to Adrian Morejon, who made quick work of the top three hitters.
A work-in-progress offenseOn a low-scoring game when the Rockies needed offense, they could not figure out Randy Vásquez and fared no better against the Padres bullpen. They managed only three hits and were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.
Rockies hitters struck out eight times and had no walks. They did not manage a hit after Goodman’s single in the fourth inning.
That said, although no one likes losing, this was an encouraging showing for a rebuilding team.
One other note: In the postgame, Dollander gave a shoutout to Alon Leichman for his pitch calling.
Join us for Game 2 tomorrow night at 6:40. Walker Buehler will start for the Padres while Tomoyuki Sugano will take the mound for the Rockies.
See you then.
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