DENVER — The Padres were at a loss when trying to explain all the losses at Coors Field.
They arrived at the idyllic ballpark in the unideal location a mile above sea level Monday having dropped 10 straight games.
The Rockies play well at home. Most of the Rockies starting pitchers have been with the team a long time and know how to pitch at altitude, and they are familiar with Padres hitters. It was “one of those things.”
Those were the prominent theories inside the visitors’ clubhouse before the Padres went out and finally took advantage of what playing baseball in Colorado has to offer.
Home runs by Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado and CJ Abrams — an extremely rare show of combined power by the Padres — provided the bulk of their offense in a 6-5 victory.
Sean Manaea rebounded from his shortest start of the season by allowing two runs in 6 1/3 innings for the win. Nabil Crismatt allowed a run while working the next 1 2/3 innings, and Taylor Rogers allowed two runs in the ninth before stranding the tying run at second base.
It was about time.
The victory ended not only the skid at Coors Field, which began on May 12, 2021, but a five-game losing streak against the Rockies this season.
The Rockies have not been all that good over the years, but they are 210 games above .500 at Coors Field. They entered Monday’s game at 38-48, tied for last place in the National League West and yet were 23-21 at home.
“You look at the numbers over the years here,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said before the game. “But you also have to look at it as this is an opportunity for us to go out there and slug a little bit too and hopefully score some runs. It hasn’t been the case for this for us to this point. This would be a good time in a four-game series to get it going.”
While players said they had talked about the reasons for the struggles here, Melvin said he was unaware the Padres had lost so many in a row at Coors Field.
He saw the arrival at a ballpark yielding more than 11 runs a game as an opportunity.
“This is a good place for us to get going here, too,” Melvin said. “We haven’t been our best offensively here in the last couple of weeks. So I think the guys are looking forward to four days here and hopefully get going with the bats and hopefully it’s a springboard for us. “
What ensued was at least a promising development.
The Padres scored more than half as many runs Monday as the 11 they managed while being swept in three games here in June.
They entered Monday’s game having hit .211 while losing 10 of their previous 14 games. Their seven home runs in that span were fewest in the major leagues.
Monday was the first time in 19 games they hit more than one home run and the first time in 24 games they hit three. It was the third time this season they did the latter.
The scoring began right away, as Cronenworth led off the game with a single, went to third on Nomar Mazara’s double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Voit to halt a scoreless streak at 16 innings.
Cronenworth put the Padres up 2-0 by leading off the third inning with a home run to the Rockies’ bullpen beyond right field.
The Rockies got to 2-1 in the fourth inning. Charlie Blackmon tripled on a ball that center fielder Trent Grisham seemed to tentatively approach as it knuckled away from him, and Blackmon scored on C.J. Cron’s sacrifice fly that Mazara caught as he fell into the right field wall.
After left-hander Lucas Gilbreath replaced Rockies starter Jose Urena to start the seventh, Machado launched his 15th home run of the season, which sailed a projected 446 feet and cleared the left field bleachers.
That 3-1 lead became 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh when Randall Grichuk sent a 1-0 changeup from Manaea into those bleachers. That was it for Manaea, who was replaced by Crismatt.
Elias Diaz greeted Crismatt with a double down the left field line before the right-hander got Garrett Hampson on a fly ball to right field and struck out Connor Joe to end the inning.
A margin that was too close for comfort, given the locale and the Padres bullpen’s 5.87 ERA over the previous nine games, grew with Abrams’ second homer of the season. It followed an infield single by Jorge Alfaro and walk by Trent Grisham and put the Padres up 6-2.
