Rain fell from the sky, water poured out from the ground and the bats were still on fire Sunday at Coors Field.
The Padres’ flames rose just a bit higher, though, in the final chapter of a record-breaking series.
San Diego defeated the Rockies, 14-13, before a sold-out crowd of 47,526 on Father’s Day. The teams split their four-game slate and combined for 92 runs — the highest total over such a span in modern MLB history (since 1900) — with Rockies’ right fielder Charlie Blackmon recording 15 hits for another league record over four games.
Although Blackmon could hardly celebrate his feat.
The Rockies led the Padres 13-10 to begin the ninth inning when closer Wade Davis gave up three runs: an RBI single from left fielder Wil Myers and a two-RBI triple from second baseman Greg Garcia. A haunting repeat of Friday’s defeat in which the Rockies’ bullpen gave up a six-run lead in the ninth. On Sunday, manager Bud Black pulled Davis with the game tied at 13 in favor of right-handed starter Jon Gray for his first career MLB relief appearance.
Gray, with two outs and one runner on base in the ninth, intentionally walked a pair of batters to face San Diego pinch hitter Matt Strahm. Gray followed with a full-count ball that walked in San Diego’s game-clinching run.
“I just wasn’t behind the baseball and wasn’t making good pitches,” Davis said.
Added Gray: “It feels weird. You just came out of the bullpen. But it’s still pitching and that one’s on me. I’ve just got to throw a strike there. I think if he puts it in play we get an out.”
Colorado (37-34) completed its seven-game homestand at 4-3 and now hits the road for nine straight between the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Giants.
On Sunday, much like the rest of the San Diego series, it was wacky from the start. The first inning lasted nearly an hour and play stopped for 15 minutes when a break in the main irrigation line flooded dirt down the right-field line and required repair from a maintenance crew with wheelbarrows, shovels, and brooms to clear the area.
The water stopped. The runs just kept coming.
Rockies’ rookie right-hander Peter Lambert made his third career MLB start and struggled through three innings with eight allowed runs on nine hits, plus two wild pitches, before getting pulled.
Colorado trailed 3-0 as it first came up to bat. No problem for Blackmon. He sent a solo shot over the right-field fence on the second pitch from Padres’ starter Nick Margevicius; whose six allowed runs in the first frame gave Colorado an early cushion it needed. Center fielder Ian Desmond (double), second baseman Ryan McMahon (fielder’s choice), catcher Chris Iannetta (single) and Lambert (single) all drove in runners.
The Rockies added three more runs in the second inning. San Diego’s bats also stayed hot as Lambert, who entered Sunday at 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, struggled with command. The Padres cut the deficit to 9-8 behind a shortstop Fernando Tatis double, a second baseman Greg Garcia triple and a pair of RBI groundouts.
Colorado turned to recently recalled right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Albuquerque and he pitched three shutout innings. And the Rockies were nowhere near done at the plate.
Shortstop Trevor Story joined the party in the fifth inning by launching his 17th home run of the season, this one from the right arm of Padres’ Trey Wingenter, as one of six San Diego pitchers used on Sunday. Then Mother Nature stalled out the Father’s Day energy with a 48-minute lightning delay and scattered showers.
“The day game after the night game, guys’ bodies are really on the edge. Then they sit down and have a delay and then sit down and have another delay,” Blackmon said. “It’s part of the reason why it just seemed like such an emotional series with all the hard work we put in and then all the back and forth. It just makes it tough to swallow.”
The tarp came off and Colorado’s offensive onslaught continued with three-straight doubles — Desmond, McMahon and left fielder Raimel Tapia — and the Rockies reached 13 runs. But San Diego (34-38) punched back with two of their own in the seventh to set up their ninth-inning comeback.
The unprecedented scoring total left players searching for answers in the Colorado clubhouse. Blackmon said he’d “never seen anything like that.” Davis agreed. What’s behind the recent scoring surge at Coors Field?
“It’s a big ballpark, there were bloopers, there were hard-hit balls and it seemed like a lot of grounders got through,” Black said. “But I think it was just the quality of pitches.”
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