Blaine Crim belted a three-run homer Friday night for his first MLB hit and Tanner Gordon pitched into the seventh inning as the visiting Colorado Rockies played the spoiler’s role with a 4-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
Gordon (6-6), who was rocked for six runs on Sunday in an 8-1 loss to San Diego, mowed down 16 straight batters after allowing Manny Machado’s 24th homer of the year in the bottom of the first.
Gordon, who whiffed nine, left after allowing a leadoff single to Luis Arraez and a walk to Machado in the seventh. Juan Mejia, Jimmy Herget and Victor Vodnik finished up from there, with Vodnik notching his eighth save.
JP Sears (8-11) absorbed the loss after yielding four runs off five hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings, striking out eight. The loss kept the Padres (80-68) two and a half games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West, following the Dodgers’ 5-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
Sears sailed through the first three innings, striking out seven. But he found trouble in the fourth as Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck led off with singles. Brenton Doyle bunted the runners up 90 feet.
Sears whiffed Ezequiel Tovar but then hung a breaking ball to Crim, who was 0-for-12 before drilling the mistake pitch into the second deck in left field. The homer ended Colorado’s scoreless streak of 39 2/3 innings at Petco Park. It was shut out in its previous four games there this year, including a 2-0 setback Thursday night.
Kyle Farmer cracked the next pitch over the wall in center for his eighth homer of the season.
San Diego scored in the ninth on Ramon Laureano’s infield out that plated Machado, who singled with one out and reached third via Gavin Sheets’ double. Jackson Merrill extended the inning with a walk but Ryan O’Hearn fanned on a changeup to end it.
The Rockies (41-107) snapped a six-game losing streak.
