Colorado Rockies vs San Diego Padres Box Score on Sep 24, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 24, 2017

SAN DIEGO -- The Colorado Rockies took a significant step toward the National League's second wild-card berth Sunday afternoon with an 8-4 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

The win, coupled with losses by closest pursuers Milwaukee and St. Louis, gives the Rockies a two-game lead over the Brewers and a 2 1/2-game advantage on the Cardinals entering the final week of the regular season.

Colorado returns home from a 2-5 road trip to finish with six games at Coors Field against the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cardinals and Brewers play each other over the final weekend.

The Rockies are 43-32 at Coors Field this season.

Right-handed starter German Marquez (11-7) held the Padres to two runs on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five innings. Right-handed closer Greg Holland, the last of six pitchers deployed by Rockies manager Bud Black, got the final three outs in a non-save situation.

Pat Valaika and Charlie Blackmon hit back-to-back, one-out homers off Padres left-handed reliever Buddy Baumann to key a three-run ninth inning. Valaika earlier had doubled home Colorado's fifth run in the seventh as a pinch-hitter. Mark Reynolds also drove home two runs for the Rockies.

The Padres' first two runs came on a historic set of two-out, back-to-back home runs by Wil Myers and Yangervis Solarte in the first inning to erase a 1-0 Rockies lead.

Myers hit his career-high 29th homer on a 1-2 slider from Marquez that cleared the fence in center by about eight feet. Solarte followed by extending his career high to 18 homers on a 369-drive to right off a 2-and-2 fastball.

The homers were the 87th and 88th hit by the Padres at Petco Park this season -- the highest total ever for a home season. The Padres had 87 homers in both the 1992 and 1993 seasons at Petco Park.

The Rockies struck first in the top of the first on singles by three of the first four hitters faced by Padres starter Luis Perdomo (8-11).

Blackmon opened the game with a single, moved to third on Nolan Arenado's one-out single back through the box and scored on Reynolds' single. The Rockies tied the game in the second without getting a hit. Ian Desmond walked, stole second, moved to third on a short wild pitch and scored when catcher Rocky Gale threw wildly to third after retrieving the errant pitch.

A second straight lead-off walk in the third led to Perdomo's downfall.

Blackmon moved to second on a single by DJ LeMahieu before Perdomo retired Arenado on a liner to third and Reynolds on a fly to right. But Gerardo Parra singled, scoring Blackmon and allowing LeMahieu to reach third. LeMahieu scored on Desmond's topped single up the third base line.

After Perdomo retired the last seven Rockies he faced, left-handed reliever Kyle McGrath retired the first two hitters he faced in the sixth before Trevor Story singled to right, stole second and scored when Valaika dropped a short double into center that ticked off the glove of the diving Manuel Margot.

At the time, that run was crucial.

Solarte opened the bottom of the sixth with a single as September callup third baseman Christian Villanueva hit his third major league homer in a span of 17 career at-bats to reduce the Rockies' lead to 5-4.

NOTES: After Sunday, each member of the Padres' six-man rotation is scheduled to make one more start with LHP Clayton Richard slated to make his final start Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. But Richard has 192 1/3 innings and Padres manager Andy Green said Richard could pitch an inning or two on the final day of the season should he want to reach the 200-inning milestone for the first time since 2012. ... Rockies OF Carlos Gonzalez took Sunday off after landing hard on his left shoulder making a diving Saturday night. ... With 41 road wins this season, the Rockies tied the franchise record for road wins in a season. The only other season the Rockies finished with a winning road record was 2009. ... Going into Sunday, the Rockies had been shut out three times in a span of four games for the first time in franchise history.