Padres rout Rockies, add to lead in playoff race

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — The Padres came down from the mountains with the margin they need after winning on Thursday by a large margin.

With a 9-2 victory over the Rockies, the Padres increased their lead in the race for the final National League playoff spot to four games with nine games remaining in the regular season.

That dropped the Padres’ “magic number” to six, meaning any combination of Padres wins and Diamondbacks losses assures the Padres a postseason berth.

If they maintain the four-game margin over the next six games, the season-ending series against the Diamondbacks at Petco Park will not be a showdown to see which of the two teams advances.

The Padres’ 10th victory in their past 11 games was just slightly more nonsensical than the typical Coors Field absurdity.

The centerpiece of the madness was a season-high seven runs in the second inning.

In all, the Padres three triples, their most since 2020. They had eight extra-base extra-base hits, which tied their season high.

And Xander Bogaerts came within a single of hitting for the cycle.

About the only one on the field who behaved as if the game was not being played a mile high was Michael King.

The Padres’ right-hander turned in his eighth consecutive quality start by getting through six innings while allowing just two runs.

It was difficult to recall that the Padres actually trailed at the start.

They made that a quick circumstance with their most prolific inning of the season.

As is the case more often at Coors Field than anywhere else, it was difficult to keep up with all the hitting and running and scoring and weirdness.

Bogaerts homered on Tanner Gordon’s first pitch in the second inning and tripled on Gordon’s 38th pitch of the inning.

The Padres sent 11 batters to the plate. Every one of them reached base except Luis Campusano, who made the first and third outs, and Manny Machado, whose sacrifice fly was the middle out.

The inning could have ended three runs and two triples before it did.

But on Jackson Merrill’s bloop hit to shallow left field, Zac Veen ran in, slid and had the ball go in and out of his glove. Merrill raced to third while the two runners who were on base ran home.

Bogaerts followed Merrill to the plate and lined a sure single that Veen tried to catch with a dive, only to have the ball hit grass in front of him and roll to the wall as Bogaerts made it to third.

The Padres were rid of Gordon after three innings and scored twice against Zach Agnos in the fifth when Jake Cronenword led off with a triple, Samad Taylor doubled and Dustin Harris hit his third single of the game.

That was ample cushion, even at Coors Field, because King was almost finished allowing runs.

The Rockies scored against him before he made an out when Jake McCarthy led off the bottom of the first with a triple and Connor Norby singled.

But King retired 15 of the next 17 batters before the Rockies scored on a pair of singles and a walk with two outs in the sixth inning.

A second walk loaded the bases after the run scored and, down to his final batter, King struck out Veen to finish off his outing on his 104th pitch.

Yuki Matsui worked the seventh and Griffin Canning the final two innings.

By then, the only question was whether Bogaerts would get the fourth cycle in Padres history (and the third at Coors Field). Strikeouts in the sixth and ninth kept him short.