The five pitchers Matt Kemp has faced most often in his 12-year career include four San Francisco Giants (Madison Bumgarner among them) and a rattled Rockies southpaw.
On Saturday, in his 50th career at-bat against Jorge De La Rosa, the 31-year-old San Diego Padres right fielder pounded a 448-foot solo home run to left field. One inning later, Kemp nailed another homer, a three-run shot well over Coors Field’s newly built wall in right-center field.
The Rockies can build all the walls they want. They won’t stop Kemp.
The Padres, after setting a major-league record with 30 scoreless innings to begin the season, broke out again against the Rockies, bombarding their way to a 16-3 blowout victory in front of 35,177 fans in Lower Downtown.
Kemp could build himself a statue at 20th and Blake. He has collected eight multiple-home run games in his career — and four came against the Rockies.
Against De La Rosa, Kemp has a .471 average (24-of-51) with seven home runs and 22 RBIs, far better than his numbers against Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Bumgarner, his other most-seen foes.
In two games to start a weekend series, the Padres have outscored the Rockies 29-9 and outhit them 37-17. Rockies rookie shortstop Trevor Story’s home run barrage finally came to an end, snapping his major-league record four-game, six-homer streak to start a career.
Colorado manager Walt Weiss knew the Rockies needed their No. 1 pitcher to stop a slide.
“We need him to put some zeros up and get deep in the game,” Weiss said of De La Rosa before the game. He did neither.
Kemp’s three-run homer in the fourth inning helped the Padres bat around the order. They scored six runs in the inning, started by Cory Spangenberg’s three-run homer off De La Rosa to right-center.
Spangenberg’s looper to the bullpen was the first test of Coors Field’s new outfield fence, which the Rockies raised by nearly 9 feet to 16 feet, 6 inches this season. A higher wall, they hoped, would cut down on offensive numbers in Colorado.
Both Spangenberg and Kemp cleared the wall easily. Short of a 30-foot-high wall, the Rockies won’t tamp down on homers without better pitching.
De La Rosa lasted just four innings after he gave up seven runs on seven hits. He left the clubhouse after the game, not talking to reporters.
“It looked like a struggle for him throughout,” Weiss said. “There was no way he could go back (for the fifth inning).”
De La Rosa’s start sent prospect hounds looking at minor-league box scores for hope.
Jeff Hoffman, a 23-year-old right-hander the Rockies got from Toronto in the Troy Tulowitzki trade, pitched six scoreless innings, with six strikeouts, in his debut for Triple-A Albuquerque. Antonio Senzatela, a promising right-hander, struck out six in six innings Friday in his debut for Double-A Hartford.
In five games this young season, the Rockies’ starting pitchers have an 8.75 ERA, second-worst in baseball.
“We’re going to continue to find ways to make it not so offensive a park,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said of Coors Fields’ new fences Friday before the home opener. “Part of that, there’s nothing we can do about. But if there are things we can do to take some of the offense away from it, that’s what we should try to do.”
Maybe a 30-foot fence isn’t a bad idea.
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or @nickgroke
