Padres beat Rockies 10-4 on Jackie Robinson Day
Credit: AP Photo
Denver, Colorado-
Today all players donned the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. While he does have a national holiday that is celebrated on Apr 15, MLB used today to honor Robinson due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On this day in 1945, Dodgers’ general manager, Branch Rickey, informed Robinson that he would become the face of racial integration in baseball.
Unfortunately, today is also the day that Chadwick Boseman passed away. Boseman portrayed Robinson in the movie “42”.
Zach Davies and Kyle Freeland, two pitchers who each made strides this year, took the bump for the Padres and Rockies, respectively. Davies has dropped his ERA by nearly a run since arriving in San Diego. Freeland is showing signs of his 2018 season in which he finished fourth in the NL Cy Young race.
Neither pitcher performed like they have this year.
Davies got hit quickly in the first inning. With one out and runners on first and third, Charlie Blackmon hit a potential double-play grounder to Jake Cronenworth. Cronenworth made a clean toss to Fernando Tatis Jr. at second. Tatis then lasered a ball that went through the webbing of Eric Homer’s glove, allowing Trevor Story to score.
After a Daniel Murphy walked, former Padre Matt Kemp walked up to the plate. As many former Padres tend to do, Kemp made Davies pay for a sinker that caught too much of the zone, driving it to left field for a three-run homer. Davies went on to pitch four and two-thirds innings while tallying six strikeouts.
Freeland held the Padres scoreless for three innings, but Jorge Mateo broke the goose egg with an RBI single.
Come around to the fifth inning, and the Padres have their three, four, five batters up. Manny Machado led off with a single, and a Hosmer double drove him in. A second double, this time off the bat of Wil Myers, scored Hosmer. Ty France’s single scored Myers to tie the game. This spelled the end for Freeland, and the end to his streak of six quality starts.
Myers is at pace for the best season of his career, right as he is getting paid the most in his career. His contract was backloaded, meaning he would be paid $20 million this year (if this was a full season), even though his contract averages out to $14 million a year. Many spectators felt that, based on his past production, he would be well overpaid this year. Career highs in on-base, slugging, and OPS+ signal quite the opposite.
Come to the sixth inning, and the top of the order is ready for some more action. Tatis hit a ringing double to center field, took third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Machado sacrifice fly. Hosmer and Myers followed that up by each getting their third hits of the games while Cronenworth walked to load the bases for Ty France.
Fans of Slam Diego all got ready for a potential 7th grand slam this season. While France failed to hit a grand slam, he was able to plate three runs on a double down the third baseline.
VIVA LA FRANCE!!! 🇫🇷
Ty France's 3rd hit of the night is a 3 RBI double that pads the @Padres lead!#FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/pTOvbCqq9V
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 29, 2020
The three, four, five slots got it going in the 8th inning… again. This time three straight singles led to a two-run inning, giving San Diego a 10-4 lead.
This man is 🔒'd IN!
(Via @Padres)pic.twitter.com/5L012L2Nn6
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 29, 2020
By the end of the game, the Padres’ bats totaled 19 hits. Tatis, Machado, Hosmer, Myers, France, and Mateo all had a multi-hit game. Something shocking is none of the ten runs scored via a home run, which the Padres have 61 of and rank third in home run totals. The Padres bats continue to get hot in Coors while helping the Padres win games, and today is no exception.
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.
THAT was a great all round game. Can you imagine the score if our lead off hitter hadn’t gone 0-6! Zero earned runs at Coors is unusual.
I’m surprised Hedges isn’t out for the year after being hit in the hand like that.