The encore was a flop.
After 47,483 fans showed up at Coors Field Saturday night to honor new Hall of Famer Todd Helton, the Rockies were unceremoniously throttled by the Padres, 8-3.
San Diego outhit the Rockies 15-5, led by Manny Machado’s 4-for-4 night.
Colorado had cooled off the streaking Padres with a 7-3 win on Friday night, but Saturday night’s victory was the Padres’ 20th in 25 games since the All-Star break, and they continue to put heat on the Dodgers in the National League West.
San Diego right-hander Dylan Cease, who no-hit the Nationals on July 31, blanked Colorado for five innings, allowing only one hit — a leadoff single by Ezequiel Tovar in the fourth.
“He has an upper-90s fastball with carry,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “Really good slider and a couple of different types of breaking balls that were really sharp tonight. You look at his body of work … and it’s real stuff. It was real stuff tonight. He threw a lot of breaking ball tonight and we couldn’t solve him.”
The Rockies’ offense finally got rolling with a three-run sixth, highlighted by Michael Toglia’s two-run homer, his 20th of the season, tying him with Brenton Doyle for the team lead.
But by the time the Rockies plated a run, the Padres already had seven runs, five coming off starter Kyle Freeland, who lost his first home game of the season.
“I wasn’t very sharp tonight,” Freeland said. “That, complied with a lot of weak hits, some jam shots over the infield, and other balls that weren’t hit hard. But you have to give credit where credit is due. It was just one of those games where everything was falling the opposite way.”
Freeland said that the finger blisters that hampered him in his previous two starts were not an issue.
Since coming off the injured list in early July, Freeland was 3-1 with a 3.48 ERA over nine starts. But Freeland lacked precise command Saturday night, evidenced by his three walks over five innings. He needed 93 pitches (59 strikes) to get through his evening.
The lefty entered the game having issued two walks or fewer in 11 consecutive starts, the longest streak of his career.
“It was uncharacteristic of Kyle to have (those walks), especially with two outs,” Black said.
The Padres punched Freeland for five runs on eight hits. The two-run fourth was emblematic of Freeland’s rough evening. He got the first two outs of the inning but issued a walk to David Peralta (after getting ahead 0-2), and then Luis Campusano, Bryce Johnson and Jurickson Profar rapped consecutive singles.
Right-hander Peter Lambert relieved Freeland and didn’t fare any better. He gave up three runs on five hits over two innings, including a solo homer to Campusano in the eighth.
The teams play the rubber match of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon. Entering the weekend, San Diego had won eight straight series, tied for the franchise high (also 2007).
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