DENVER — It is what happened on the way to history Saturday night that mattered for the Padres.
“It’s just the standard and the expectation of how we play,” Jake Cronenworth said. “It’s something that we said since the beginning of last year, and I think it’s something that’s now ingrained in the culture within the team — that this is how we’re going to play no matter the score. We’re gonna play hard.”
The Padres had no mercy on the Rockies Saturday, pummeling a team threatening to become the worst in MLB history 21-0 at Coors Field.
The shutout was pitched entirely by Stephen Kolek, who in his second career start became just the 28th pitcher ever to go the distance in a shutout at mile-high Coors Field and the first since 1889 to do so anywhere in a game in which his team scored 20 or more runs.
“Doing it here is clearly impressive,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “But also doing it with that kind of lead and keeping the gas down. But he was on go the whole game. Hats off to him. He threw the ball exceptionally well.”
Yes, that is what the Padres preach and what they practice.
The history: The Padres beat a team by more runs than they ever had. Last night was the first time in franchise history that they had five players with at least three RBIs. Their 24 hits were tied for most any Padres team has had in a nine-inning game.
They are now 25-13, which is the best record by any of the 57 iterations of the Padres 38 games into a season.
Conversely, the Rockies 6-33 record is tied with the 1988 Orioles for worst in MLB history 39 games into a season.
Saturday was the fourth consecutive game in which the Rockies allowed at least 10 runs, tying a franchise record and tied with several teams for the longest streak in 95 years.
The Padres built a 20-0 lead by scoring in each of the first six innings. They added their final run off Jacob Stallings, a Rockies catcher, in the eighth inning.
Their season-high five home runs — one each by Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts, Jason Heyward, Gavin Sheets and Fernando Tatis Jr. — were two more than they’d had in any game this season. Jackson Merrill had four hits. Luis Arraez, Elias Díaz and Sheets had three apiece. Arraez, Cronenworth, Heyward, Sheets and Tatis each drove in three runs.
But where it came and who it came against was impossible to set aside.
Each of the past three times the Padres have hit five home runs in a game have come at Coors Field.
But it also hardly mattered who or where the Padres were playing.
How they played Saturday may have demonstrated the Padres’ relentless approach almost as much as any of their one-run or comeback victories.
The night began with Rockies starter Bradley Blalock being unable to consistently locate the strike zone with a breaking or offspeed pitch and the Padres refusing to swing at anything except what they felt they could crush.
Where they scored one run in the first inning and four in the third en route to a 13-9 victory on Friday, they scored five in the first, one in the second and again in the third, eight in the fourth, four in the fifth and one in the sixth on Saturday.
It was what continued to happen as they built the monster lead that was notable.
They were up 15 runs when Merrill ran full speed down the line trying to beat out a routine grounder. They were ahead by 16 when Sheets and Heyward busted down the line on successive groundballs to try to beat out would-be double plays. They were up by 19 when Cronenworth, fresh off the injured list and still with a fractured rib, on his right side, dove to his right to snag a groundball and throw out a runner for the second out of the fifth inning. They head just pushed their lead to 20 when Cronenworth fouled off three two-strike pitches and worked a nine-pitch at-bat.
“It all works together,” Shildt said. “Everything builds on the next thing. And that’s how players put together good seasons, that’s how teams put together great seasons.”
Kolek made sure there was no danger of anything like the Rockies’ late comeback occurring Saturday.
He allowed five hits while getting through the game in 104 pitches.
“Shildty always talks about keeping your edge,” Kolek said, referring to one of Shildt’s key mantras. “To me it was just stay on the attack and don’t give anything away.”
The Padres on Sunday can complete their second sweep of the Rockies this season.
“This game is over,” Cronenworth said. “Obviously, we’re gonna enjoy it. But we’re gonna come back and play the same way tomorrow.”
