Rockies-Padres slug it out to a split

You can never be sure who the heros of any series will be.  The Padres-Rocks series featured four very good games, one surprising hero, and just a whiff of purple shirt power.

GAME 1

Padres - 9

Rockies - 5

The Padres jumped on Blake Snell and scored 3 in the first, capped by a 3-run Lars Nootbar homer.  But the Rocks hung in.  Snell would not let up another run, and we'd use a pair of Adames homers to get back to 5-3, and then we'd keep pace at 6-4 through 7 frames.  But the normally solid Rocks bullpen crumbled.  Hudson and Lorenzen gave up 3 over the last two frames.  Of note, Matt Vierling went 3 for 5 with a run scored in this one.  He'd be heard from again.

WP - Severino  LP - Snell  HR - Nootbar, Adames (2), T. Taylor

GAME 2

Padres - 6

Rockies - 4

The boys in purple grabbed the lead with a 2-run 1st inning, but Yu Darvish then gave it back and then some, including a tragic 4-hit sequence in the third that featured a pair of two run homers by Randall Grichuk and, you guessed it, Matt Vierling.  The Rocks would then threaten in every inning the rest of the way, but we stranded 7 runners and scored just twice more.

WP - Chavez  LP - Darvish  SV - Williams  HR - Vierling, Grichuk

GAME 3

Padres - 2

Rockies - 6

We were questioning the purple shirt, but Charlie Morton loves purple!  He came out in our city alternate uniform, purple with white cow spots!  He pitched 5 clean innings in the one, and the Rocks would keep cranking out hits to build a 6-0 lead.  The Padres would come back in the 8th with a 2-run homer by, well you know who.  But the lead held.

WP - Morton  LP - P. Lopez  HR - Vierling, W. Smith, P. Smith

GAME 4

Padres - 2

Rockies- 6 

The same score as game 3, but a very different game.  I mean, one thing was the same....Matt Vierling went 3 for 4 with a homerun.  But otherwise, this one was tense.  Both teams pushed 2 runs across in the 2nd, and then both teams would struggle for 4 innings.  But Willy Adames delivered a huge 3-run BP homer in the 7th, and the Rockies made that stick.

WP - Kopech  LP - Helsley  SV - Jimenez  HR - Vierling, Haase, Hill, Adames, Tatis

Rockies will take a split against a tough team.  We are now 50-34.  The Padres are 37-39, about to play some big games against the Braves and Pirates.  If they win a bunch there, they could have a huge series versus the Giants to finish this season!

Oh, and Vierling? - 9 for 17, 2b, 3 hr, 4 runs, 6 RBIs

Matt Vierling has a hot bat for the Rockies vs the Padres.