Joey Lucchesi struggles early as Rockies tie series against Padres

Denver, Colorado

For the first time in the 2020 season, the San Diego Padres’ offense struggled to make much of an impact.

With Kyle Freeland starting on the mound for the Colorado Rockies, the Padres got shut down. In six innings, the left-hander gave up two hits and one walk while striking out four Padres.

Freeland also had the benefit of solid defense as both Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado took away multiple potential hits with their gloves.

San Diego’s lone run came in the eighth inning after Trent Grisham launched a home run 457 feet to dead center field off of reliever Yency Almonte.

Grish punishes that ball into the forest beyond the CF wall at Coors!@Padres | #FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/rZk2OVTe0Q

— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 2, 2020

The Padres starting pitching struggled immensely. Joey Lucchesi started the game with the expectation that Cal Quantrill would come into the game as a long reliever. Lucchesi began the game well, striking out two batters despite allowing two base hits.

The struggles game in the second inning when the Rockies managed to plate three runners. The first came when a Luchessi pick off attempt was missed by Ty France, thus allowing Chris Owings to score on the wild throw. With a pitch count skyrocketing in the early innings, manager Jayce Tingler had no choice but to pull his starter.

With two outs and runners on first and third, Cal Quantrill was called into the game in the second inning While Quantrill would throw 77 pitches over 4 1/3 innings, he too would struggle against the potent Rockies offense.

Former Padre Matt Kemp got the third inning going with a solo home run for the Rockies. Story added to the run total with a solo shot in the fourth inning. In the fifth inning, two walks and an Owings single would plate the final run of Rockies offense.

Luis Perdomo came into the 7th inning and pitched two scoreless innings to complete the game.

With the win, the Rockies were able to tie up the series and take the lead of the division in terms of win percentage. Zack Davies and the Padres will look to take the series and the division lead tomorrow at 12:20 PST.

Evan Anderson

Evan is a student finishing up a degree in Finance from Northern Arizona University. The ability to break down numbers and find the story behind them has lead to his first of writing for East Village times. He covers baseball which is the sport he grew up playing and has followed even after his playing years.