Every pitcher has a different experience at Coors Field. The notorious launching pad has flustered many a hurler over the years and until you actually throw there you're not fully sure how it's going to go.
Padres rookie Nick Margevicious got his introduction to the thin air of Denver. He wasn’t great. He wasn’t awful, either. But he did take the loss in a 10-7 Rockies win that gave Colorado a series win in Denver.
Margevicious gave up five runs in 5.0 innings but four of them came in the 2nd inning alone. In fact those four runs were scored in a span of six pitches. Ryan McMahon doubled in Raimel Tapia for the first run of the game and on the next pitch Rancho Buena Vista High School alum Tony Wolters singled in McMahon to make it 2-0.
A sacrifice bunt sent Wolters to 2nd then Charlie Balckmon sent a monster home run to right field to make it a 4-0 Rockies lead.
The Padres got on the board on a Manny Machado sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning but Blackmon got it back with his second homer of the game off Margevicious in the 4th so it was a 5-1 game when more San Diegans made a mark on this match.
In the 7th inning Poway High School alum Alex Dickerson lined a pinch-hit single to center to bring in Wil Myers and make it a 5-2 game. The next batter was Valhalla High School alum Greg Garcia, who doubled to right-center to score Austin Allen (the rookie catcher got his first career MLB hit earlier in the inning) and make it interesting at 5-3.
But then the Padres bullpen did bad things. Again.
Gerardo Reyes got Blackmon to line out then gave up a single to Trevor Story, beaned David Dahl and unleashed a wild pitch to move them both into scoring position. Padres skipper Andy Green decided to intentionally walk Nolan Arenado and bring in lefty Brad Wieck to face the left-hand hitting Daniel Murphy.
That did not work out as planned. Murphy snuck one down the right field line for a 3-run double then scored on a home run by another left-hander, Raimel Tapia, to pump the lead up to 10-3. It was needed, too, because the Friars made one last ditch effort in the 9th inning.
Garcia, who has played extremely well at 2nd base and might have stolen the job permanently from Ian Kinsler, doubled to left-center to score Myers then came home on a monster 3-run home run by Franmil Reyes that make it a 3-run game. Manny Machado followed with a walk but Eric Hosmer flew out to center to end it.
The Padres take Monday off then play what is without question the most highly anticipated game of the season on Tuesday night. Chris Paddack, the Padres ace in the making, faces Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium.
