SAN DIEGO — Baseball can be a strange game, filled with irony.
And so it was Saturday night that the Padres should send up Chase Headley in the seventh inning to pinch hit in the No. 3 hole, a spot usually taken by Adrian Gonzalez, far and away the Padres’ best hitter who had left the game an inning earlier.
Headley delivered a thunderous homer to right field off Rockies reliever Joel Peralta. The first pinch-hit home run of Headley’s career was the telling blow in the Padres’ 3-1 victory over the Rockies.
Headley arrived at the plate in the seventh because of what transpired in the sixth.
The game came to a screeching, frightening halt when Rockies starter Jason Hammel unleashed a 93 mph fastball that tailed in on San Diego second baseman Edgar Gonzalez, Adrian Gonzalez’s big brother. The pitch drilled Edgar Gonzalez in the back of the helmet, knocking him to the ground. Obviously woozy, he was taken off the field on a cart.
Adrian Gonzalez also left the game to be with his brother, who was taken to a local hospital.
Hammel, who immediately ran toward the plate to check on the downed batter, appeared shaken by the incident.
“Yeah, I was shaken up a little, but I wanted to stay in the game,” Hammel said. “But I can understand why I got taken out.”
He walked pinch-hitter Drew Macias and was removed from the game, leaving men on first and second for reliever Juan Rincon. Rincon walked Everth Cabrera, loading the bases. Tony Gwynn Jr. stepped in and lined a shot up the middle, only to see Rincon snare it to end the threat.
But in the seventh, Peralta couldn’t keep the Padres down. After Headley’s homer, Peralta gave up a double to Kevin Kouzmanoff and a run-scoring single to Eliezer Alfonzo.
“This game came down to which club makes the bad pitch,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “And we didn’t do much offensively tonight, and that was a big reason we lost the game.”
Until Headley’s home run, this game was a Petco Park special, with fly balls turning into automatic outs in the heavy Pacific air. Case in point was Troy Tulowitzki’s sixth-inning drive to deep center that started out looking like a homer but ended up in Gwynn’s glove for the third out.
All told, the Rockies managed just four hits. Their only run came in the first when Dexter Fowler led off with a walk, stole second and scored on Brad Hawpe’s double.
Padres starter Kevin Correia baffled the Rockies for six innings, giving up one run on three hits.
Hammel pitched an effective, albeit wild, 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits. He walked three, hit three and struck out seven.
Hammel’s first inning hinted at disaster. After two quick strikeouts, he loaded the bases and then threw four straight balls way outside the strike zone to Kyle Blanks, forcing in a run.
The Rockies’ best chance to break through was foiled by a nifty Padres’ double play with no outs in the sixth. Hawpe smashed a grounder to Adrian Gonzalez at first, who fired to Cabrera at short, who fired back to Correia covering first base.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
Looking ahead
TODAY: Rockies at Padres, 2:05 p.m., FSN
The Rockies will journey into the unknown this afternoon when they face 20-year-old, 6-foot-6 right-hander Mat Latos in his big-league debut. Latos made the jump directly from Double-A San Antonio and will become the fifth-youngest pitcher in Padres history. Blessed with a mid-90s fastball and excellent control, he was 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA in nine starts at San Antonio after starting the season 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA at Single-A Fort Wayne (Ind.). All-star right-hander Jason Marquis (11-6, 3.65 ERA) starts for the Rockies. He’s looking to rebound from a subpar outing against Atlanta when his sinker stayed up and the Braves got to him for three runs and seven hits in six innings. Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Monday:
Diamondbacks’ Doug Davis (4-9, 3.41) vs. Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa (6-7, 5.21), 6:40 p.m., FSN
Tuesday:
Diamondbacks’ Max Scherzer (5-6, 3.64) vs. Rockies’ Aaron Cook (9-3, 3.85), 6:40 p.m., FSN
Wednesday:
Diamondbacks’ Jon Garland (5-9, 4.45) vs. Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez (7-9, 3.82), 1:10 p.m., FSN
Thursday:
Off
