By Coors Field standards, it’s been a rather tame season. Wednesday night, the craziness returned.
In the Rockies’ 10-6 victory over San Diego, there were 11 pitchers used, nine walks issued (eight by Colorado pitchers) and 29 combined hits, including two homers, five doubles and a triple.
Rockies shortstop Jose Iglesias drove in a career-high six runs.
The nine-inning game took three hours, 40 minutes to complete.
And, oh yes, Colorado manager Bud Black got tossed.
The Rockies finally put the game away with a three-run seventh, combining a leadoff double by catcher Elias Diaz, an RBI single and a stolen base by Sam Hilliard, a pinch-hit single by C.J. Cron and a two-run single by Iglesias.
Hilliard, making his second consecutive start since being recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque, went 3-for-5 and scored three runs.
The Padres, a legitimate playoff contender, continue to fail at Coors Field. The Rockies are 12-3 in LoDo against the Padres since the start of the 2021 season.
Iglesias’ three-run homer in the sixth off of Nabil Crismatt tied the game 6-6. But Black wasn’t around to see Iglesias’ homer.
Earlier in the inning, when Elías Díaz was called out at home for going out of the basepath to avoid catcher Austin Nola’s tag, Black went ballistic. He was ejected by home-plate umpire Malachi Moore, getting tossed for the first time this season and the 33rd time in his career.
Haunted by eight walks, including back-to-back, bases-loaded freebies in the fifth by starter Chad Kuhl and reliever Jhoulys Chacin, it could have been a nightmare on Blake Street for the Rockies. But they rallied for their wildest victory of the season.
Kuhl gave up a solo homer in the first to Jake Cronenworth but settled in until the Padres’ two-run fifth. Kuhl gave up two-out singles to Cronenworth and Manny Machado, then back-to-back walks to Nomar Mazara and Eric Hosmer to force in Cronenworth. Chacin’s walk to Ha-Seong Kim forced in Machado.
Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove, who’s headed to Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Los Angeles was in total command through four scoreless innings. But Colorado scored three runs on four hits in the fifth. That was it for Musgrove, who saw his ERA rise from 2.09 to 2.42 after giving up five runs on nine hits.
