SAN DIEGO (AP) — It has been a while since the Colorado Rockies played a game like this one.
Yonder Alonso hit his 100th career homer during Colorado’s four-run sixth inning and German Márquez pitched eight strong innings for the Rockies, who beat the San Diego Padres 8-3 Sunday to snap a five-game losing streak.
The Rockies won for just the seventh time in 26 games. They are 13-31 since June 21.
“That’s how you win. You get good starting pitching and timely hitting,” manager Bud Black said. “That’s what happened today. Obviously, the goal is to make that happen tomorrow; good pitching and timely hitting, and we just haven’t had that for the greater part of a month.”
Márquez (11-5) gave up three runs and five hits, struck out nine and walked two. He also hit an RBI single in the sixth and had two sacrifice bunts.
“I thought German was outstanding,” Black said. “Again, he found his breaking ball. I thought in the middle innings, about the fourth, fifth, sixth, really, really good breaking ball. They were swinging at the ball down below the zone, so that was telling me that out of the hand it was looking like a strike and it was diving down below the zone.”
Márquez said his mindset was “to keep the ball down and go as far as I can.”
The right-hander improved to 3-0 against San Diego this season and 7-3 on the road overall.
“He’s especially tough away from Coors Field,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “It’s a four-pitch mix. He was comfortable today on the mound. He threw the ball well for them. We took some good swings off of him early and it took us a while to finally mount some decent at-bats later in the game.”
Francisco Mejía homered in the second and rookie Josh Naylor connected in the third to give the Padres a 2-0 lead that Alonso erased in the sixth.
Alonso, the brother-in-law of Padres slugger Manny Machado, homered to right with Charlie Blackmon aboard after a leadoff single. It was Alonso’s second tying two-run shot in two games, his 10th homer overall this season and third with the Rockies.
“I’m just happy that we got a win,” Alonso said. “A very important win, a win that kind of just cuts off that slide. Just a great job by Márquez.”
Craig Stammen (6-6) then replaced Dinelson Lamet and allowed Ryan McMahon’s double and Ian Desmond’s go-ahead single. Stammen got two outs before Márquez singled to center to bring in Desmond.
The Rockies added two runs in the ninth off Carl Edwards Jr., who made his Padres debut. Desmond and Tony Wolters hit consecutive RBI singles.
San Diego rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. went 0 for 4 to end his 14-game hitting streak.
Lamet allowed three hits in five-plus innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
Naylor has played well since being recalled from Triple-A on Aug. 1, a day after outfielder Franmil Reyes was traded to Cleveland in a three-team deal.
“Seeing pitching every day, you get in a groove and you see the baseball more consistently,” Naylor said. “You can read depths better, instead of coming off the bench.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rockies: OF Yonathan Daza fouled a ball off his inner left ankle in the fourth and needed a few minutes to shake it off. He struck out and then left the game. Black said X-rays were negative. Daza was replaced by Desmond, who took over in left field while Raimel Tapia moved to center.
TRANSACTION
The Padres recalled Edwards from Triple-A El Paso and optioned right-hander Gerardo Reyes to their top farm club. Edwards was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for lefty Brad Wieck on July 31.
UP NEXT
Rockies: RHP Peter Lambert (2-3, 6.87 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday night in the opener of a three-game home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who counter with RHP Merrill Kelly (7-12, 4.52 ERA).