Jake Cronenworth swung from his heels, took two steps down the first base line and watched his sixth-inning, 414-foot blast sail over the wall in right-center, the Padres’ second home run in a 13-5 win over the Rockies on Tuesday afternoon.
The win was a reminder of what these Padres have been capable of all along even as they prepare to welcome so much more help for their playoff push.
Yu Darvish gutted through six quality innings and homers from Trent Grisham and Cronenworth powered a comeback as the Padres waded through a long day of baseball — on and off the field — with a 19-hit effort — their most this season at Petco Park — in the first game of a doubleheader.
Funny enough, only Manny Machado finished the game without a hit as he prepares to welcome Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Brandon Drury and before long Fernando Tatis Jr. as lineup protection.
Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim set career highs with five and four hits, respectively, and Cronenworth, Grisham and Jorge Alfaro each had two hits.
The Padres trailed 3-0 after the top of the fourth inning before scoring at least one run in each of the next five innings. They had 15 hits in their last 27 at-bats, plus two sacrifice flies.
Grisham’s two-run blast tied the game in the bottom of the fourth and Cronenworth’s two-run homer gave the Padres a 7-3 lead in the sixth.
Darvish (10-4, 3.30 ERA) struck out seven and allowed three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings. Two runs scored on Randal Grichuk’s second-inning homer and Brendan Rodgers accounted for the other with a solo shot in the fourth inning.
Darvish was in trouble after Rodgers’ homer as the Rockies put runners at second and third with no outs. But he struck out Connor Joe, Yonathan Daza and Brian Serven to keep the score at 3-0.
