Good morning from Denver,
That didn’t go how anyone expected.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Jake Cronenworth said. “A 1-0 game at Coors Field. In the 80-plus games I’ve played here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that and I’ll probably never see it again.”
That quote, which greatly undersells the rarity of a 1-0 game at Coors Field, is also in my game story (here) from last night. That story touched on Randy Vásquez’s seven scoreless innings, how the Rockies’ Chase Dollander nearly matched him and just how unique a 1-0 game at Coors Field is.
Where we will start this morning is with Vásquez, who became just the 32nd pitcher to ever take the mound at Coors Field and throw at least seven scoreless innings while allowing no more than four baserunners. (For context, that has been accomplished 71 times at Petco Park in nine fewer seasons.)
“Same old,” Vásquez said through interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “Just trusting my game plan and executing my pitches, just as I’ve been able to do so far.”
One of the most charming things about Vásquez is that he is so understated. He keeps it simple. Almost nothing seems to be remarkable to him. He could throw a no-hitter on the moon, and he would say he didn’t notice the lack of gravity.
But the fact is last night was sort of the same old for him at Coors Field, where opposing pitchers have a 5.79 ERA and the Rockies have a .365 batting average, .365 on-base percentage and .495 slugging percentage since the Park opened in 1995.
This was Vásquez’s third consecutive quality start at Coors Field. Even having allowed four runs in 2⅔ innings there in his second start for the Padres in 2024, he has 3.32 ERA in four starts in Colorado, which is best among any pitcher who has made four starts here since the start of the ‘24 season.
“Altitude or not, I don’t focus on that,” he said. “It doesn’t go into my game plan. I just come in and execute.”
Vásquez’s game plan did involve throwing his cutter and slider a little more and his sinker and changeup a little less in the thin air.
He also exploited the Rockies being the most aggressive team in the major leagues. He retired them in order over his final three innings but allowed one baserunner in each of the first four innings.
But he got four one-pitch outs in the first two innings and ended the third on a double play.
“I liked it,” he said, in English, of the Rockies swinging away.
Vásquez has arguably become the Padres’ most reliable starting pitcher – if that is even arguable. Without any question, he has stepped up to be the pitcher the Padres need with Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove sidelined by elbow issues.
After two seasons in which he was defined by his resilience with men on base, Vásquez is throwing harder and working smarter and seeing the results. His 1.88 ERA is tied for third in the National League this season.
Going back to his final four starts last season, he has a 2.18 ERA in his past nine starts (a run that began with a Sept. 6 start at Coors Field).
Asked how high his confidence is, Vásquez smiled and said, “100 percent.”
Saving the saver
Consistent with how they have handled virtually every player on the roster this season, the Padres decided Sunday night that Mason Miller would not pitch for two days.
“Mason will be fine going forward, but we’ve got to take it easy on him,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We’ve used him a lot here over the last week or so. And he’s not a robot.”
Miller, who has been the talk of baseball for his dominance so far this season, threw 20 pitches on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. Those were his 10th and 11th appearances and seventh and eighth saves.
Sunday was his third appearance in four days.
Miller maintained that he did not push back when told he would be down yesterday.
“Not in April,” he said.
After Jason Adam worked the ninth, Adrian Morejón got last night’s final three outs on eight pitches.
“You see the depth that we have,” Miller said. “It’s any guy, any situation. The important thing, I think, is looking at the big picture the whole season. And knowing that we’re get efforts like that. … we’re gonna have the ability to do that and feel really good about the guys we’re running out there still.”
Morejón has retired 15 of the past 16 batters he has faced on a total of 56 pitches, looking very much like the All-Star he was in 2025 after an unfortunate start to the season.
His filling in for Miller last night came a game after Bradgley Rodriguez filled in for Morejón and Adam, who were getting a day of Sunday due to their workload.
“I know it is amazing for the manager because he can throw everybody in the bullpen right now,” Morejón said. “The last game, me and Jason being down and Bradgley finishing really good, that helped the team a lot.”
He’ll take it, for now
Manny Machado was 0-for-3 last night, dropping his batting average to .178, tied for 166th in the major leagues among 183 qualified hitters.
But he drove in the game’s only run by doing what he has been doing as well as anyone in the major leagues. With the bases loaded and two out in the sixth inning, Machado laid off pitches outside the strike zone and drew a full-count walk.
It was his 17th walk, tied for fourth in the National League. He is chasing pitches outside the zone at a 22.4% rate, the best of his career by a fair amount and 33rd in the majors this season.
“I think Manny knows that he’s not swinging it great right now, and he’s finding a way to impact the game in a different way,” Stammen said. “And knowing him from years past, I don’t know if he would have done that. I think he would have tried to swing his way out of this. And this one, he’s kind of using his eye to take advantage and get on base and piece it together until he does feel good at the plate, which is coming soon.”
Machado insisted he doesn’t feel that far off.
“I feel like my swing is in a good spot,” he said. “Just a little inconsistent, missing some pitches, but I don’t think my swing is bad. Obviously, they could fall a couple more, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning ballgames right now, and we’re doing a good job with passing the baton and letting everybody play.”
Machado is savvy enough to do so.
He complimented Dollander, who momentarily faltered and had some bad luck in the sixth inning.
First, Cronenworth lined a double to right center with one out. Fernando Tatis Jr. then reached on an infield single that left his bat at 61 mph, hit four feet in front of the plate and bounced toward third base. And on the next pitch, a curveball broke in and grazed Jackson Merrill’s pant leg.
“He had us in the corner, and we got up,” Machado said. “… Trying to work that count there. That inning kind of spiraled on him a little bit, so I just let him come to me.”
Not seeing it
Now, one thing Machado’s eye has not been good for is using the ABS system.
“Yeah, I’m done,” he said after challenging a strike call that was confirmed last night.
It was his third straight miss on a challenge after he got strike calls overturned on his first two challenges. Machado had said from the time it was announced the ABS system would be used this season that he would only challenge “obvious” calls.
“I thought it was obvious,” he said. “But yeah, I’m done.”
Sticking with it
Not even at Coors Field did Tatis deviate from his approach at the plate.
After getting a single on a topped grounder to the left side in the sixth inning, Tatis turned in an eight-pitch at-bat in the eighth inning that he ended by punching a 98 mph fastball just off the plate the other way through the right side.
It was Tatis’ 16th base hit to the opposite field or center. He has seven hits to the pull side.
I have written quite a bit about how hard Tatis is hitting the ball and how he is sticking with going the other way and doing what certain pitches call for. Tom Krasovic further broke down Tatis’ approach in a column Monday (here). Kras, who covered Tony Gwynn for many years, said one of the greatest hitters of all time would approve of what Tatis is doing.
Not melting
The Padres are playing in Denver at the perfect time — between a snow storm last Friday and an expected storm this Friday. It was 82 degrees at first pitch last night.
Yet three of the Padres’ top hitters remain ice cold.
Ramón Laureano was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts last night. Jackson Merrill was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and was hit by a pitch. We already talked about Machado.
Laureano was batting .292 with a .921 OPS through last Wednesday. He is 2-for-16 with nine strikeouts and a walk in three games since.
Merrill was batting .261 with a .784 OPS through Wednesday. He is 1-for-20 with 11 strikeouts and has been hit by a pitch over the past five games.
Machado had gotten his batting average above .200 (.206) and his OPS to .713 by going 2-for-4 on Thursday. He is 1-for-15 with five strikeouts and two walks since.
It figures
I wrote on the off day (here) about the five consecutive games the Padres are playing at least a mile above sea level and how much the Padres hitters were looking forward to it. So, of course last night happened.
The Padres got doubles from Cronenworth and Freddy Fermin, two singles from Tatis and one apiece from Miguel Andujar and Xander Bogaerts.
In 271 all-time games at Coors Field, it was the 75th time they did not hit a home run, the 73rd time they had two or fewer extra-base hits and the 27th time they had five hits or fewer.
Again, the all-time batting line for every team who has ever played at Coors Field is .295/.360/.486, and the place yields nearly 1½ home runs a game on average.
Quality, but not offically
Dollander did not turn in the 13th quality start against the Padres, because he did not start last night’s game.
Dollander entered in the second inning and pitched through the seventh, allowing three hits and a run while striking out 12 in his six innings.
The ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft, Dollander was pitching in his 27th career game. The 24-year-old right-hander throws 100 mph, and 30 of his 61 fastballs were 99 mph or harder.
“Got some really good stuff,” Stammen said. “Got that really hard heater. We just couldn’t quite catch up to it tonight.”
Owning the decision
Among bench coach Randy Knorr’s chief duties is updating and proactively advising Stammen during games and also making sure the rookie manager doesn’t beat himself up.
Knorr had to remind Stammen to not second-guess his decision to not have Bryce Johnson pinch-run for Miguel Andujar after Andujar hit a two-out single in the ninth inning.
Stammen was momentarily kicking himself when Freddy Fermin followed with a double to the left field corner that sent Andujar to third when it almost certainly would have scored the speedy Johnson.
“Randy goes, ‘Don’t do it. We shouldn’t have done it,’” Stammen recalled after the game.
The Padres decided to not have Johnson run there so they were not left with just catcher Luis Campusano on the bench in a ballpark where a one-run lead is more tenuous than anywhere else.
A little empathy
Walker Buehler starts for the Padres tonight.
He had some strong starts in Colorado early in his career. He last pitched here for the Dodgers in 2024, allowing seven runs on seven hits (two home runs) in four innings. (Indicative of the zany nature of playing at Coors Field, he did not get the decision in the Dodgers’ 11-9 victory.)
Asked about pitching at elevation, Buehler turned the conversation into a broader discussion that had nothing to do with him.
“Anytime you have a real outlier, I understand that we’ve got to come in and play,” he said. “I just don’t think playing in this type of altitude is good for the 26 guys that have to play here all the time. I don’t think that’s fair to them. I think physically those guys break down a lot easier. The idea that a team can draft you, regardless of their development program, and it’s an inherent disadvantage for you playing a long time in the big leagues is a problem.”
While it is pitchers who have to make the biggest adjustment in the thin air, where pitches do not move as they normally do, Buehler noted the challenge for hitters. He said he felt it is a big advantage for the visiting pitcher who faces the Rockies in their first game of a homestand.
“People don’t understand,” he said, “how difficult it must be for their guys hitting and pitching to have to play six games here and then go somewhere else and the ball actually plays different.”
Tidbits
Stammen had seen this game before, from the opposite vantage point. Stammen’s first game pitching at Coors Field ended with the Rockies beating the Nationals 1-0. Stammen was the starting pitcher for the Nationals and took the loss after allowing an RBI double to future Hall of Famer Todd Helton in the first inning. Stammen went on to shut out the Rockies over the next six innings. But Jason Marquis and Houston Street pitched the shutout for Colorado.
With their 11th victory in 12 games, the Padres moved into a tie with the Dodgers atop the NL West. Both teams are 16-7, which is also tied for the best record in the major leagues.
The past three Padres starters (Vásquez, Michael King on Sunday and Germán Márquez on Saturday) have not allowed a run in 17⅔ innings. It is just the second time since the start of the 2024 season that three consecutive Padres starters have turned in at least five scoreless innings.
The Padres have gone five games without a home run for the first time since 2022. The last time they went six games without a homer was 2012.
After losing 3-2 in the season’s fourth game, the Padres have won their past four one-run games.
Last night was the Padres’ third shutout of the season and their first in a 1-0 game. They led the major leagues with five 1-0 victories last season.
Bogaerts is batting .353 (18-for-51) with a .990 OPS over his past 14 games.
The Padres have not committed an error in 12 straight games, their longest such streak since going 16 games at the start of the 2022 season.
Yesterday was just the 16th time in 23 games that all six of the Padres “everyday” players (Bogaerts, Cronenworth, Laureano, Machado, Merrill and Tatis) have started.
In the name of journalistic integrity, I’m just going to admit it doesn’t make me like Vásquez any less that he is partial to the brown uniforms. He has worn them for both of his road starts this season and won both. The Padres are 4-1 in their beautiful brown tops this season.
On the off day here Monday, Stammen played his first round of golf since the day before spring training. To understand how significant that is, it is important to note that Stammen has a negative handicap. That means he routinely shoots below par. You have to play a lot of golf to be that good. Stammen shot a 77 on Monday.
The Padres are not taking any players on the injured list to Mexico City, so Musgrove and Pivetta also skipped Denver and headed back to San Diego after the series finale in Anaheim.
Teams are permitted to have an extra position player on the roster for international games. So someone from Triple-A will be joining the Padres for the trip from here to Mexico City tomorrow night. Considering how much of a beating Freddy Fermin has taken this season, including a hard foul off his right ankle last night and a half-dozen mask-rattling foul balls, perhaps the extra player should be catcher Rodolfo Duran.
Please read Annie Heilbrunn’s story (here) on Wandy Peralta, the undervalued reliever who keeps it loose in the bullpen. It really does a good job explaining a big reason Peralta is valued by his teammates.
All right, that’s it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.