Former Aztec shines as Rockies rally, snap Padres' winning streak at eight games

DENVER — The Rockies are young and unknown and not good on the whole.

But they have some players who can hit a bit, and especially at their mile-high ballpark.

In Tuesday’s game at Coors Field between one team on an eight-game winning streak and one on an eight-game losing streak, it was a young player from somewhere familiar who effectively on his own topped the Padres on Tuesday.

San Diego State product Cole Carrigg drove in five runs with two homers to lead the Rockies to a 9-3 victory that stopped the Padres a game short of what would have been their longest winning streak in five years.

“It felt good yesterday,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said of the Padres having won for more than a week straight. “Not today, though. That’s just an honest answer. But, you know, you just clean it up, and we start building again from tomorrow.”

The Padres’ second loss in 11 games against the Rockies this season meant they did not move into a tie for the fifth wild-card spot with the Phillies, who lost earlier Tuesday. And it might have resulted in the Padres’ lead over the Diamondbacks shrinking to 1½ games. That was pending the outcome of Arizona’s game against the Marlins, which was tied 1-1 late.

The Rockies are five defeats away from their fourth consecutive 100-loss season.

Carrigg’s first homer tied the game 2-2 in the third inning. His second extended the Rockies’ lead to 7-3 in the sixth inning.

Besides Carrigg sending two balls more than 400 feet into the Colorado night, the Padres lost Tuesday because they faded after a fast start, and their three pitchers were nowhere near as good as the Rockies’ two.

“We started off good,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “A few solo home runs. We needed to hit those with a few men on base, but it wasn’t our night. As the game went on tonight, their offense kept going and got to our bullpen.”

The Padres led off the first two innings with home runs — Tatis on the second pitch of the game and Luis Campusano on the first pitch of the second inning.

They kept speeding through innings, but they didn’t score again until Austin Hays homered on the first pitch of the fifth inning.

The Padres had four other hits in the first two innings. But all four of those runners were left on base, two of them in scoring position, and Rockies starter Kyle Freeland had thrown just 28 pitches to that point. He threw nine more in the third inning and 12 in the fourth.

It was the left-hander’s second start after missing nearly a month with a pinched nerve in his neck, and he was on a 60-pitch limit.

He did not get past 50, because after Hays sent his second home run with the Padres over the left-field wall, Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer made the switch to right-hander Ryan Feltner.

Hays’ homer put the Padres up 3-2.

The score was remarkable not only for the fact that the Padres had not turned their hits into more runs but for the way Walker Buehler had allowed two runs.

It could have been more if not for a couple of plays made by two of his outfielders and could have been zero if not for a play one of his infielders did not make.

Buehler was helped in the first inning when Campusano threw out Carrigg trying to steal second base for the third out.

That was nothing compared to how Jackson Merrill and Samad Taylor saved him in the second.

A single by TJ Rumfield was followed by Buehler walking Kyle Karros to start the inning.

Mickey Moniak then sent a fly ball to center field that Merrill ran 87 feet to catch just before crashing into the wall.

With runners at the corners, Buehler hit Troy Johnston on the foot with a 0-2 slider to load the bases before Brett Sullivan sent a flare into shallow left field that Samad Taylor dove to catch just before the ball hit the grass. Taylor rolled over as he came up to throw and lost the ball. As second-base umpire Andy Fletcher signaled out, Merrill picked up the ball and threw to second base to double up Karros, who had taken off running right away.

Buehler’s fortune turned in the third.

He got the first two outs and would have gotten the third had Xander Bogaerts been able to make a tough play on a chopper up the middle by speedy Adael Amador. But Bogaerts bobbled the ball on the exchange, and Carrigg walked to the plate and launched a 1-0 cutter at the top of the zone over the wall in right field to tie the game.

It was Carrigg who knocked Buehler from the game with a two-out double in the fifth.

Wandy Peralta stranded Carrigg when Bogaerts caught a hard line drive by Karros. But the Rockies would have the lead by the time he got his next out.

Mickey Moniak began the bottom of the seventh with a triple to the corner in right field. Troy Johnston’s double tied the game, and a single by former Padre Sullivan gave the Rockies their first lead.

Peralta struck out Zac Veen before Jake McCarthy singled to end his night.

Randy Vásquez entered the game with the two runners on and got an out before Carrigg sent the 13th pitch he saw into the Rockies dugout beyond right field to extend the Rockies’ lead to 7-3.

“Randy made a lot of good pitches, a ton of good pitches,” Stammen said. “And even the last pitch that hit the top of the zone, it (was) one of those fastballs in Coors Field that doesn’t really carry. And he (got) the barrel to it. … He won the competition in that at-bat, and that happens sometimes. They’re trying to win also, and he put (together) a good at-bat.”

The Rockies added two runs in the seventh against Vásquez.

It was a rare time this month the Padres could not overcome their mistakes and shortcomings.

“We just got to clean it up, you know,” Tatis said. “Tough one. Swallow it and pass the page. … Our pitching has had our back all year, and I don’t want to sound like I’m pointing fingers. (The Rockies) figured out to hold us to three today. It should go vice versa. But maybe our offense wasn’t that great today.”