The San Diego Padres extended their winning streak to four games with Saturday’s 5-4 win over the Colorado Rockies.
Padres starting pitcher Tyson Ross was very good on Saturday night. Ross tossed 6 2/3 strong innings against the struggling Rockies offense. Surrendering three runs on six hits and recording six strikeouts, Ross did not struggle until the end of the sixth.
Starting to run out of gas in the sixth, Ross gave up a single to Rockies first baseman Ben Paulsen and the served up an RBI triple to left fielder Brandon Barnes. After Paulsen was removed from the game for Padres reliever Brandon Maurer (6-2), who earned the win, Barnes scored on a Wilin Rosario double.
San Diego was able to get an early start off of another Rockies starter. Chad Bettis was strong the for the first seven batters of the game before Padres catcher Austin Hedges deposited a ball deep beyond the left-center-field fence to put San Diego up 1-0 in the third inning. Matt Kemp touched up Bettis for a two-RBI double in the sixth to extend the San Diego lead to 3-1.
Bettis exited after six innings of work, surrendering three runs on three hits and recording five strikeouts. Bettis earned the no-decision after leaving the game tied at 3-3.
Colorado was finally able to execute with runners in scoring position, going 2 for 5 and leaving only four runners on base. The Rockies were led by Barnes, who finished the night 3 for 4 with an RBI triple, and short stop Troy Tulowitzki, who was 2 for 3 with a solo home run in the eighth inning to pull the Rockies back within one run, 5-4.
Tulowitzki has now reached base safely in 40 straight games, the second-longest streak in franchise history, trailing Matt Holliday, who reached safely 46 times in 2007. All-Star second baseman D.J. LeMahieu went 1 for 4 on Saturday night, extending his hitting streak to 10 games.
San Diego was once again able to use the long ball to help propel themselves to victory even though they recorded only five hits against Rockies pitching. Behind a solo home run by Hedges and a two-run bomb by ex-Rockies short stop Clint Barmes, San Diego was able to survive a late push by the Rockies.
Flame-throwing reliever Craig Kimbrel finished the ninth inning by recording three straight strikeouts to grab his 25th save of the year.
On Sunday, the Colorado Rockies will send Eddie Butler (3-6) to the mound in his first start since being sent back to Triple-A on June 9. San Diego will counter with Andrew Cashner (3-10), looking for the series sweep. The first pitch is slated for 4:10 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on ROOT Sports and Fox Sports San Diego.