Padres build 11-run lead, withstand Rockies’ late rally

Gavin Sheets knocked in four runs, Martin Maldonado launched a homer and the visiting San Diego Padres became the latest team to batter the Colorado Rockies’ pitching staff during a 13-9 victory Friday night.
Sheets’ three-run double capped a four-run third inning that gave San Diego a 5-0 lead, and he added an RBI double during a five-run fifth. Maldonado finished off the fifth with a two-run homer to left, his second of the year, in the opener of a three-game set.
Randy Vasquez (2-3) earned his first win since April 9, allowing six hits and two runs in six innings with a walk and a season-high five strikeouts. It was Vasquez’s longest outing since firing six scoreless innings in a March 29 no-decision against Atlanta.
Antonio Senzatela (1-6) suffered the loss after giving up nine hits and eight runs (four earned) over 4 2/3 innings. Senzatela walked two and fanned two as Colorado fell to 6-32 with its seventh straight loss.
Manny Machado initiated scoring for the Padres in the first with an RBI single to center. Jackson Merrill, who finished with three hits and two RBIs, lined a run-scoring double off the left field wall in the third before Sheets’ bases-loaded double.
Michael Toglia got the Rockies on the board with a solo homer in the fourth but the Padres established a 10-1 advantage in the fifth. Machado scored on one of Colorado’s three errors, followed by Sheets’ RBI double, Jason Heyward’s run-scoring double and Maldonado’s homer.
Merrill tacked on an RBI single in the sixth and Xander Bogaerts added a sacrifice fly to make it 12-1. Jake Cronenworth finished San Diego’s scoring in the eighth via a run-scoring single.
The Rockies erased most of the deficit with a late offensive burst that included solo blasts from Ryan McMahon and Jordan Beck, as well as a five-run eighth. They added two more in the ninth and made the Padres use closer Robert Suarez for the last two outs, resulting in his 15th save.
Machado and Luis Arraez each finished with three hits for San Diego. McMahon and Hunter Goodman collected three hits apiece for Colorado, which also got a two-run double from Kyle Farmer.