Padres overpower Rockies in good, old-fashioned Coors Field romp

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 7, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — The San Diego Padres won’t get very far next month without Manny Machado rounding back into form. The same goes for Dylan Cease.

The two stars aligned on Sunday.

Machado’s first-inning homer got the offense started on a good, old-fashioned Coors Field romp, Dylan Cease turned in his best start in nearly a month and an 8-1 win over the Colorado Rockies kept the Padres within a game of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Beyond the division, a Chicago Cubs loss shaved their deficit in the race for the NL’s top wild-card spot to three games and a New York Mets loss improved the Padres’ cushion against the current third wild-card team to two games.

In other words, there’s no better time for Machado and Cease to get back to who they are.

“It’s huge for us,” said designated Gavin Sheets, who hit one of four Padres homers in the series-clinching win. “Dylan throwing the ball extremely well obviously puts us in a really good spot. It’s a guy with Cy Young potential stuff and if we get him going for the rest of the year it’s a huge lift for us. … You get Manny swinging the bat really well again, (Fernando Tatis Jr.) last night.

“When you get superstars playing at the top of their ability, it’s a huge lift for us.”

Machado had plenty of help on Sunday in handing the Rockies their 103rd loss, tied for the worst in franchise history.

Jackson Merrill hit his first homer since returning from the injured list during a three-hit game and Sheets and Ramón Laureano added tape-measure shots as the Padres out-hit the Rockies 15-6 in clinching their first series since taking two of three from the Dodgers last month at Petco Park.

Lauerano’s solo shot in the fifth traveled 438 feet, his furthest homer in more than a year and almost as far as Sheets’ career-best 451-foot blast in the fourth.

And yet that was a foot shy of the 452-foot homer to left-center that Machado hit in the first inning after Luis Arraez’s one-out walk, the furthest homer yet for a Padre this season.

Machado also walked in a run and doubled in showing signs of life after his worst month as a Padre (.590 OPS in August) and carrying a .333 OPS into Sunday’s finale after he was the lone Padre without a hit in Saturday’s 10-8 win.

“Sucks when you’re losing,” Machado said. “That’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day. But (we won) some games. We had an offensive outbreak (Saturday) as a whole group. It doesn’t matter what I went, as long as we won and we did the job. I think that’s all that matters.

“Just take good at-bats and try to help the team whatever way you can.”

The early-and-often runs allowed Cease to largely cruise through five-plus innings of one-run ball. He struck out five to push his season total to 195 in his quest for a fifth straight 200-punchout season. His 1,081 strikeouts since the start of the 2021 season are the most in the majors and what precisely makes him a star in spite of sporting a 4.71 ERA even after taming Coors Field on Sunday.

“Loved the sweeper and the shutdown innings when we were able to score early and of course Manny gets us on the board to get it started,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “ … We know who they are. The back of the baseball card tells us they are elite performers in their areas.”

Cease allowed four hits and two walks, with the two free passes coming in the fifth and to begin the sixth inning.

Left-hander Adrián Morejón got double plays to get out of the sixth and seventh innings, ensuring Cease earned a victory to cap a stellar weekend for the rotation, especially given the environment.

Nick Pivetta threw six innings of two-run ball in a tough-luck loss on Friday and Randy Vásquez turned in six quality innings in a win on Saturday. Even with Cease stalling in the sixth inning on Sunday, the three starts in the thin air of Coors Field — after two innings from Morejón and a scoreless frame from David Morgan and Ron Marinaccio — left the bullpen well rested heading into Monday’s three-game series against the wild-card hopeful Cincinnati Reds.

“We’ve talked about what the recipes are to help you win games — that’s it,” Shildt said. “Nick got us through six. Randy got us through six. Dylan got us into the sixth today. That’s how you keep your bullpen fresh and use the guys appropriately, and the offense does their part to get the lead.

“That’s really how this is designed.”

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