San Diego Padres morning after: Yu Darvish's 100th career win is perfect 10
DENVER — In pursuit of his 100th career win, San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish was backed by a lineup that flexed its collective muscle in a big way at Coors Field.
Five different Padres hit home runs and San Diego looked like the offensive juggernaut everyone expected in Friday's 9-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Three of those home runs (off the bats of Manny Machado, Trent Grisham and Gary Sanchez) staked the Padres to a 6-0 lead after two innings, a lead that would help the Padres win back-to-back games for the first time since May 25-26.
The home runs also continued a simple trend for the Padres. When San Diego scores four runs or more, the record is 28-4. When the Padres fail to score four runs, they are 2-29.
"Everybody in here has been waiting not if but when it's going to come around so it's nice to stack two days like that on top of each other," said Grisham, referring to San Diego's 10-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday before a day off on Thursday.
San Diego Padres get power surge to support Yu Darvish
The two-out, two-run blast by Sanchez in the second was his fifth in 10 games with the Padres, becoming just the second player to reach that mark in that span (joining Carlos Quentin in 2012).
Meanwhile, while the offense grabbed the headlines, it was Darvish who was doing enough to keep the Rockies off-balance at the plate. Darvish went 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on five hits (with three of those coming in the sixth inning before he was pulled after 100 pitches). He also walked four and struck out six.
"I thought I went in with a pretty good game plan," Darvish said through a translator. "I felt like I lost a little bit of command on my pitches toward the end and that prevented me from staying in the game a little bit longer."
Prior to the game, Padres manager Bob Melvin praised Darvish for his preparation when it comes to pitching at altitude, whether it's in Denver or Mexico City (where he threw 97 pitches against the San Francisco Giants on April 30). After the game, Melvin commended him again for his consistency and longevity.
"100 wins is a nice round number for a guy that's pitched an awful lot in Japan as well," Melvin said. "One of the great pitchers on either side, and I know he's not stopping at 100."
San Diego and Colorado continue their three-game series on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 12:10 p.m. (Pacif