Padres go up big, hold on to beat Rockies

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The march toward the inevitable stalled for a time this month, but the San Diego Padres got back to taking advantage of the opportunity they were given.

Seven games in 10 days against one of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball helped get the Padres back on track.

They won five of those games, finishing the stretch with a 9-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday at Petco Park that required them to hold on after scoring the game’s first seven runs.

The Padres have won just six of their past 14 games. Five of those victories have been against the Rockies, including three of the four they played in San Diego since Thursday.

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Padres hold the fifth of six National League playoff spots. They are five games ahead of the Mets, who they visit for three games beginning Tuesday.

The Padres remain 3 1/2 games behind the Cubs, who hold the fourth spot and would host the Padres in a best-of-three wild-card series if the season ended with the two teams in the same positions.

The Dodgers’ victory over the Giants on Sunday meant the Padres remained 2 1/2 games back in the race for the NL West title. But it also meant they moved to 6 1/2 games clear of the Giants, who are the closest team to the Mets.

The Padres’ 82nd victory, which ensured their fourth consecutive winning season, was not without intrigue.

The game seemed it had been all but decided early, same as the Padres’ 11-3 victory the night before.

Playing without Manny Machado, who was getting a rest after being the only player to start every one of the team’s first 149 games, the Padres led 3-0 after one inning, 6-0 after two and 7-0 after three.

Rockies starter German Marquez did not make it out of that third inning, and the Padres did not score again until the eighth inning while a pair of first-pitch home runs and an RBI single by San Diego native Mickey Moniak gave the game some late drama.

Moniak’s first homer, leading off the fourth inning was the only run scored off Yu Darvish until he left the two runners to Jeremiah Estrada with no outs in the sixth and Moniak sent Estrada’s first pitch over the wall to get the Rockies to 7-4.

Adrian Morejón allowed a pair of runs in the seventh — the first when Ezequiel Tovera doubled in Braxton Fulford, who had singled, and the second when Moniak rolled a two-out single through the right side.

Mason Miller came in and struck out Blaine Crim to end the seventh and worked a 1-2-3 eighth.

A double by Mason McCoy, single by Fernando Tatis Jr. and two-run double by Gavin Sheets in the bottom of the inning provided a three-run cushion for closer Robert Suarez, who extended his NL lead with his 38th save.

The Padres’ three runs in the first inning came on a walk and four singles, two of those on bunts. The second bunt hit was laid down by Jake Cronenworth with the bases loaded. That was followed by Jose Iglesias grounding a two-run single through the middle of the infield.

Mason McCoy reached on an error to start the second, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his second single and Jackson Merrill, who had bunted himself aboard in the first inning, then sent a home run into the left-field seats.

Singles by Cronenworth, Iglesias and Freddy Fermin created the run in the third.

The Padres finished the season 10-3 against the Rockies, the best record either of the NL West foes has ever had against the other. The Rockies’ 41-109 record has them on pace for the fifth-most losses any team has had since 1901.

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