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Coors Field is a crazy place for baseball. But even by their lofty … dare I say mile high … standards what we saw on Friday night was insane.
The Padres scored six runs in the 9th inning and five more in the 12th inning to beat the Rockies 16-12 in a wild west shootout.
The Rockies built an 11-5 lead thanks to a 2-run home run by David Dahl, a 3-run inside-the-park homer by Ian Desmond and a truly awful 5-run 6th inning against reliever Miguel Diaz.
But the 9th inning was bonkers.
Eric Hosmer hit a 2-run single and scored on a 2-run home run by Hunter Renfroe to cut the lead to 11-9. It was the second homer of the night for Renfroe but not the last. The Padres loaded the bases with two outs and then the rookie sensation did something special.
Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., all of 20 years old, lined a single up the middle that left the bat at 115.9 MPH to bring in two runs and give the Padres a 6-run inning that tied the game 11-11 and sent it to extra innings.
In the 12th Tatis decided to start another rally. He smoked a triple off the centerfield wall and scored on a double by fellow rookie Austin Allen that gave the Padres a 12-11 lead. The proverbial floodgates opened again. Manny Machado doubled home Allen and Renfroe went deep again.
His 3rd homer of the night gave Renfroe 21 on the year and pushed him past Franmil Reyes for the team lead. More importantly it was part of a 5-run 12th inning that gave the Padres a lead that turned out to be insurmountable even on a nutty night in Denver.
A nice side note to this game is reliever Craig Stammen, who gave up four home runs on seven pitches on Sunday against the Nationals, threw a scoreless inning and got his 5th win of the year.
The Padres can guarantee at least a series split on Saturday night when Eric Lauer takes the mound against German Marquez.
