The San Diego Padres found their groove again on the road in a tense, close affair in the heart of Denver.

San Diego’s offense made a statement early to back Matt Waldron’s first career start at Coors Field, with the top of the order sparking the offense early against Rockies spot starter Ty Blach. Ha-Seong Kim took a low and outside curveball to right field to score two runs, his third double of the season. Jackson Merrill would continue his hot hitting with a sacrifice fly, and Eguy Rosario added on a fourth run with a 104-mile-per-hour single to center field.

The first inning went a lil’ something like this: pic.twitter.com/An1mgCvCV1

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 25, 2024

Waldron, facing the altitude for the first time, had a solid start to his outing, retiring the first ten batters he faced. The first real threat Waldron would face came in the fourth inning when, with two outs, Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan McMahon would walk. Elias Diaz would single on a sharp ground ball to Ha-Seong Kim to load the bases, and it was starting to feel all too familiar to Padres fans. However, Waldron would dig in deep and retire the next two batters on a pop-up to Jake Cronenworth and a groundout to end the inning. 

The Padres would not bring across another run against Ty Blach, who went five innings in his first start of the season.

Victor Vodnik would come into the game for Colorado and get into a second and third, no-out jam after a single and error. Merrill would then ground out on a close play to bring in Jurickson Profar to make it 5-0 in favor of the Padres. The Rockies would get that run back on a home run by McMahon to make the score 5-1, and a walk and single by Brenton Doyle would put runners on the corners with two out with Brendan Rodgers coming up. A day after flipping the score with a grand slam, Rodgers would hit into a force out to end the threat and Waldron’s outing. 

The Padres would have opportunities to add on against Colorado long reliever Anthony Molina but would be held scoreless through the ninth inning. Meanwhile, Yuki Matsui would toss a scoreless seventh, while Wandy Peralta would allow a home run to Elias Diaz to make it a 5-2 game in the eighth. 

With the game now in a save situation, the Padres would turn to their closer, the man of a million fastballs, Robert Suarez. Suarez would deliver yet another strong 1-2-3 ninth inning, striking out Hunter Goodman to end the game and secure this one for the Friars. 

The Pads go for the series win tomorrow, with Randy Vasquez on the mound against Dakota Hudson. Game time is 12:10 pm Pacific time, so prepare for lunch with a side of Padres baseball. 

Watch the game on Padres.tv, and listen live on 97.3 The Fan. 

Diego Garcia

A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.

A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.