Renfroe, Myers power Padres to 4-3 victory over Rockies
Credit: Padres
Denver, Colorado
The script for Saturday’s matchup against the Rockies had a much different flavor than Friday’s.
Where yesterday saw Eric Lauer and the San Diego Padres get hammered 12-2, today’s game gave us a pitcher’s duel between Joey Lucchesi and Jon Gray while timely hitting from Hunter Renfroe and Wil Myers helped the Padres overcome the Rockies in Coors Field.
Luchessi and Gray traded zeroes for three innings until Renfroe turned on a first-pitch fastball and hit a mighty blast to left field to give San Diego an early lead. The home run, his fourth in sixth games, jumped off his bat at 110 MPH and continued a string of good hitting from the corner outfield.
For his part, Joey Fuego buckled down at a ballpark where pitching comes to die.
After giving up a double and a walk in the first inning, Luchessi put down 12 straight Rockies before Tony Wolters broke the streak with a base hit in the fifth inning. During that stretch, five of those outs were on groundball outs, and two were strikeouts.
Everyone knew.
4⃣8⃣6⃣ feet!!!#FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/GAq2qNoDhy
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 12, 2019
Despite having the Padres’ number for what seems to be his career, Gray wasn’t at his best against the Friars today. While he was cruising even after the Renfroe dinger, the Padres kept nipping at the right-hander all game. Said nipping paid off in the sixth inning after Eric Hosmer extended his hitting streak to nine games with an RBI single to right field to score Manny Machado from second base. After today’s 1-for-4 day, the Wizard of Hos has gone 14-for-37 (.378) at the plate with a homer, six RBI, and just five strikeouts. Since April 20, he has seen his batting average jump from .213 to .275 as he has become a catalyst for the lineup.
Luchessi’s night was done after a Trevor Story double in the sixth inning. In the 5.1 innings he pitched, he allowed a run on three hits while walking one batter and striking out four. He also threw 65% of his pitches for strikes. The run came after he left when Gerardo Reyes allowed Story to score on a Nolan Arenado sacrifice fly.
Wil Myers, a career .353 hitter at the mile-high skies of Coors Field, continued his good hitting in Denver by swatting a hanging slider Gray so graciously offered 468 feet to left field for his ninth career home run at Coors Field and his seventh of the year.
Heads up on the concourse, got a @wilmyers jack headed your way ☄️#FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/9rDhaO2ciK
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 12, 2019
Colorado didn’t go down without a fight; scoring runs in the seventh and eighth inning to force a tie at three runs apiece, with Charlie Blackmon’s homer off of Craig Stammen tying the game up.
San Diego loaded the bases up in a ninth inning that saw Austin Allen draw a walk in his first Major League at-bat. Greg Garcia bounced a grounder to Garret Hampson but, instead of taking the easy out at first base, Hampson heroically attempted to make an off-balance throw to nab Myers at home. The off-target throw was far too late as Myers slid into home for the go-ahead run.
Potential All-Star (is it too early to be saying this?) Kirby Yates entered in the ninth and was his dominant self, striking out the side to secure his MLB-best 16th save. Stammen got the win in relief, and the Friars won their third game in five days. They will finish the series tomorrow with Nick Margevicius on the hill.
I am currently attending San Diego State University while working on achieving a major in journalism. At SDSU, I write for The Daily Aztec while also hosting the sports radio show “Picked Off”, for KCR Radio. A loyal fan of San Diego sports, I hope to bring content that you will enjoy reading.