SAN DIEGO — In baseball, early-season assumptions can be formed quickly. And as the Rockies proved Monday night at Petco Park, they can also be questioned twice as fast.
‘s early power drought? Over, as the third baseman went deep for the second straight game in Colorado’s convincing 5-2 victory over the Padres.
Back-end rotation questions? Quelled, at least for a night. Right-hander , fresh off the injured list, delivered a strong performance with 6⅔ innings of one-run ball in his first start of 2019.
“(Senzatela’s) ball was coming out good all night,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “The fastball had some life to it and beat some bats throughout the game, and he threw some really good, low fastballs on the corner and just off. His misses were really good.”
And while the offense didn’t put together any particular hit brigades, Colorado’s hitters had quality at-bats on the whole while the bullpen shut the door on the club’s first consecutive wins since opening the season in Miami.
“We knew there needed to be more intent (offensively),” Arenado said. “We needed to find a way to win, because the way we were losing was unacceptable. It was not moving guys over, men on second and third and not getting them in. We weren’t getting those runs in, but the last couple days we’ve been able to.”
gave Colorado a 2-0 lead with his double in the second, and that was followed by his first homer of the year on the first pitch of the seventh inning to make the score 4-1.
The center fielder’s big night, when he became one of six Rockies to hit six or more homers at Petco Park with Colorado, epitomized an offense that chipped away at San Diego southpaw Joey Lucchesi. Beyond Arenado’s tone-setting dinger in the sixth inning to push the score to 3-1, also had an RBI groundout in the seventh.
“The offensive approach was a little bit better again tonight,” Black said. “I thought yesterday against (Derek) Holland in San Francisco with better at-bats sort of carried over to tonight.”
Senzatela’s lone blemish came by way of a Franmill Reyes solo homer in the fourth, but besides that, the Rockies (5-12) were in control. They, behind strong starting pitching and a couple of big swings, looked like they knew how to win again as they did in ‘s one-hit, complete game shutout Sunday against the San Francisco Giants to snap the team’s eight-game losing skid.
“I threw a bad pitch (to Reyes) and he got me with his power, but in my mind, I said, ‘Next pitch, and keep the ball down,'” Senzatela said. “I didn’t get out of rhythm.”
pitched 1⅓ clean innings of relief following Senzatela, touching 99 mph with his heater and flashing effective high-80s off-speed to keep hitters honest. then finished off the win with his first save of the season, albeit following Wil Meyers’ mammoth 428-foot solo blast off earlier in the ninth inning.
The victory, Arenado hopes, is only the beginning of an April swell following the club’s worst start in franchise history.
“The care is there. That’s never a question with this team,” Arenado said. “But there was definitely the time when we needed to look ourselves in the mirror.”
ǴdzٲԴdzٱ.Noel Cuevas exited Monday’s game following his at-bat in the top of the fourth, in which the outfielder reached by error. Cuevas, just called up from Triple-A Albuquerque earlier in the day, strained his left quadriceps running up the line and is likely headed to the injured list. “Three quarters of the way to first base, I felt it pull,” Cuevas said. “We’ll know in the next couple days the severity of the strain.”
On Deck
Rockies RHP Jon Gray (0-3, 4.19 ERA) at Padres LHP Nick Margevicius (1-1, 1.69), 7:10 p.m., ATTRM; 850 AM, 94.1 FM
Gray has been the stabilizer of the back end of Colorado’s rotation so far, even if his record doesn’t reflect it. In his last outing, the right-hander cruised, allowing one run on a solo homer in six-plus innings of work against the Giants. The Padres are hitting .250 (29-for-116) against Gray, while outfielder Hunter Renfroe has two homers against him in three at-bats. Meanwhile, Colorado has never faced the rookie Margevicius, who made his debut March 30 and has allowed just one earned run in each of his first three big-league starts.
Trending: There hasn’t been much work to do yet for closer , who is making $18 million this season. Colorado didn’t have its first save opportunity of the season until Friday in San Francisco — a mark that tied a franchise record to start a season — and Davis now sits at one save, whereas he already had eight at this point last year en route to leading the National League in the category.
At issue: While German Marquez has shown flashes of dominance so far, co-ace has lost three straight decisions for the first time since his rookie season in 2017, when he surrendered 14 total earned runs across three starts from late June to early July of that year.
Upcoming pitching matchups
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Phillies RHP Zach Eflin (2-1, 8.84 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (1-3, 5.40), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
Friday: Phillies RHP Vince Velasquez (0-0, 2.25) at Rockies RHP German Marquez (2-1, 2.00), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
