Ty France, Ramon Laureano, and Jackson Merrill each homered Sunday, as the San Diego Padres finished off a four-game sweep of the visiting Colorado Rockies 7-2 in a game where both starting pitchers went down with injuries.
France went 3-for-3, scoring three runs and finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Laureano and Manny Machado drove in two runs apiece, as San Diego extended its winning streak to five games, outscoring the Rockies 28-12 in the series.
But the Padres got some bad news in the fourth inning when Nick Pivetta, who retired the first nine men he faced, left with a 2-2 count on Edouard Julien in the top of the fourth. The club announced during the sixth inning that Pivetta was suffering from right elbow stiffness.
Colorado’s scheduled starter, Kyle Freeland, didn’t even make it to the post. He was scratched during warmups with what the Rockies termed left posterior shoulder soreness. Jimmy Herget became an opener for the second time in the series.
Herget (0-1) suffered the loss after allowing a first-inning run on Machado’s sacrifice fly. Freddy Fermin matched that sac fly in the second against Chase Dollander for a 2-0 advantage.
San Diego did most of its damage against bulk reliever Valente Bellozo, who permitted eight hits and five runs over 4 1/3 innings. France launched a 427-foot homer to deep left-center in the fourth for a 3-0 lead. Machado carved an RBI single to right in the fifth that plated Merrill.
Laureano broke the game open in the sixth with a two-run shot to left, his fourth of the year, and Merrill led off the seventh with his third homer of the season over the right field wall.
Overshadowed in the Padres’ power explosion was that their five pitchers allowed Colorado just two hits. Brett Sullivan drilled a two-run double to the wall in right-center in the fifth that scored Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle, while Hunter Goodman singled with two outs in the ninth.
David Morgan (2-0) was awarded his second win of the series after throwing 1 2/3 hitless innings, striking out four.
