Lamont Butler ensured that regardless of the San Diego Padres game, it would be a good day for San Diego sports fans. Padres newcomers Xander Bogaerts and Matt Carpenter made sure it would be a great one.

Bogaerts continued his hot start with his first home run as a Padre, helping San Diego to their first win of the season.

His homer, a two-run jack, was crushed into the upper deck at over 109 miles per hour. It came with two outs in the first inning, which became a theme for the Padres. “His home run jumped started us and felt pretty good,” Bob Melvin said after the game. The Padres struggled to come up with clutch hits in the first two games of the series, but they scored five of their eight runs with two outs in their win on Saturday.

Matt Carpenter doubled the Padres’ lead in the third inning when he scored the recently extended Jake Cronenworth and Juan Soto with a double. Luis Campusano, making his first start of the season, singled in the next at-bat, ending Colorado Rockies’ starter Jose Ureña’s night early. 

The Padres’ strong start was helped by Michael Wacha, who didn’t allow a run in his first four innings of work. Colorado finally got to Wacha in the fifth, when they put two runners in scoring position with just one out. Ezequiel Tovar grounded out, but he brought Mike Moustakas in through the backdoor. However, the Padres answered back with a run in the bottom of the frame, as Campusano scored Cronenworth on a sacrifice fly. 

The wheels fell off the bus for Wacha in the sixth, as the first four batters of the inning all reached. C.J. Cron did even more damage to the Padres as he hit his third home run of the young season, cutting San Diego’s lead to one. Wacha appeared to be rattled as he allowed a double to Ryan McMahon. However, manager Bob Melvin trusted his pitcher, leaving him in the game.

That proved to be a great decision, as Wacha retired Colorado’s next three hitters to get out of trouble. That ended his night, working six innings of four-run ball, throwing just 83 pitches. “All in all, good game for him except for the one pitch (HR to Cron),” Melvin told the media afterward. 

Manny Machado singled home Jose Azocar in the bottom of sixth to give the Padres some breathing room before Juan Soto provided crucial insurance in the eighth. With two outs, he brought home Azocar and Roughned Odor to put the Padres up by four. 

While it wasn’t a save situation, Josh Hader came in to finish off the Rockies, doing so with extreme precision. He sat down all three Colorado hitters he faced, including striking out two of them. After San Diego’s bullpen had struggled in game one, Steven Wilson and Tim Hill helped to make sure Colorado couldn’t get back into the game. The Padres’ bullpen retired all nine hitters they faced, securing the win.

San Diego will look to secure a series split tomorrow, with Seth Lugo making his Padres’ debut as the starter. He’ll go up against Austin Gomber for the Rockies.

Sam Evans

Sam is a Senior in High School. He has been writing for three years, and started at EVT in June of 2021. He’s headed to Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications in the fall of 2023.