It was another one of those nights at Coors Field. The kind where baseballs seemed jet propelled.
And it was another one of those losses for the hometown Rockies. The kind where the bullpen opens the floodgates with the game on the line.
The Friday night final from LoDo in front of 33,697 fans: San Diego 9, Colorado 5.
, Matt Kemp slugged a run-scoring triple in the ninth inning off Justin Miller and became the first player in Padres history to hit for the cycle. Kemp — 4-for-5 with four RBIs — hit a home run in the first inning, a single in the third and a double in the seventh.
“Nolan Arenado asked me a tough question,” Kemp said . “He’s like, ‘Would you rather that be a home run or a triple?’ I like home runs. But I said, ‘I think the cycle would be better.’ “
San Diego iced the game by scoring four runs with two outs in the seventh, the key hits being Kemp’s run-scoring double and a three-run homer to center by Jedd Gyorko. Both hits came off struggling right-hander Rafael Betancourt (5.94 ERA). Of course, Colorado’s entire bullpen is in a funk, as displayed by its 4.76 ERA, the worst in the majors. That’s more than twice as high as the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2.26 ERA.
And so, the Rockies lost for the 12th time in their last 16 games and tumbled 20 games under .500 for the first time this season (47-67).
Starter Yohan Flande gave the Rockies a fighting change, even if he started out on shaky ground. In the first, a single by Derek Norris followed by Kemp’s laser over the center-field wall put the Rockies in a 2-0 hole. A single by Justin Upton, a wild pitch by Flande and Gyorko’s double to left made it 3-0.
The one thing Flande does is pound the strike zone. Although the Padres reached him for four runs on eight hits over six innings, of the 86 pitches he threw, 64 were for strikes.
“Flande did a good job,” said Rockies manager Walt Weiss. “He gave up some runs early but pitched well after that. He always throws strikes and works fast.”
The Rockies had San Diego starter Tyson Ross on the ropes from the beginning, but could never put him away. In the first, Nolan Arenado jumped on Ross’ 91 mph fastball for a two-run homer to left. It was Arenado’s 29th homer of the season.
Colorado loaded the bases in the third but DJ LeMahieu, who has been clutch with runners in scoring position all season, popped out to right to end the threat. The Rockies were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine baserunners.
It was a perfect summer night for baseball at Coors Field and a perfect night for baseballs to take off. Case in point: In the fifth, Norris hit a leadoff pop fly, a LoDo special off Flande. It seemed harmless enough when Norris connected, but the ball drifted over the left-field wall to give San Diego a 4-3 lead.
“You could tell the balls were going out tonight,” said Rockies left fielder Brandon Barnes. “I thought I had a decent chance to get that one, and I tried to stick my spike (in the wall) when I jumped, but it slipped out. I almost brought it back.”
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or
