DENVER — From time to time, Matt Waldron needs an inning to settle in. He needed two on Friday, and that was one too many.
The Padres’ knuckleballer gave up a three-run homer in the first, a two-run shot in the second and that’s all the Rockies needed in a 7-3 win that clinched the season series against the playoff hopeful Padres.
The blasts weren’t cheap, either, even by Coors Field standards.
Brendan Rodgers’ 439-foot home run in the first inning was a 108.8 mph rocket, the third-hardest hit that Waldron has ever allowed off his signature pitch.
The next inning, longtime Padres nemesis Charlie Blackmon went 450 feet to the second deck in right field off an 89 mph four-seamer, opening a 6-2 lead to answer Ha-Seong Kim’s two-run shot.
Waldron went on to pitch into the sixth inning but the damage was done early.
Again.
More often than not, that’s the case if Waldron’s getting hit.
He entered the start with a 7.88 ERA in the first inning, a 4.62 ERA in the first three innings of games and a 3.36 ERA in innings four through six.
“Maybe it’s like a preparation thing or just how I go out there, but that first inning, it’s tough,” Waldron said. “It hurts to let my teammates down, especially so early, like, just give the momentum away, but I gotta wear it.
“Yeah, I’ll get real with whatever work I need to do and give myself the best chance to perform out there and to win again.”
As for the last three innings of a game, Waldron has not allowed a run yet in that lane.
But he exited after 5 2/3 innings on Friday, allowing seven earned runs in continuing a cold spell that has seen him allow a 5.88 ERA over his last nine starts. Waldron gave up a double to Michael Toglia to start the sixth inning, fetched two outs and then allowed a soft single to Jordan Beck before he was yanked from his worst start since allowing eight runs — seven earned — in three innings in Arizona on May 5.
Waldron struck out six on Friday but allowed nine hits and a walk.
A bad day at Coors Field is far from uncommon but it was also an about-face for Waldron after he threw six innings of one-run ball here in April for his first quality start of the season.
“I thought he righted his ship, was able to get into the sixth inning in this ballpark,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “You know, again, wasn’t able to be as efficient or clean in the first, but after that was — a little bit of a second too — but then third, fourth, fifth was clean and was able to go back and grab some of that sixth, which was an important couple of outs there.”
Yuki Matsui followed Waldron with two strikeouts over 1⅓ scoreless innings and Sean Reynolds turned in a scoreless eighth.
Double plays kept the Padres’ offense from turning Friday’s game into a classic Coors Field slugfest.
First, Xander Bogaerts bounced into one to third base to end the first inning after Cal Quantrill (5 IP, 3 ER) allowed the first three runners to reach base. That stretch included Jurickson Profar being hit a pitch for an NL-leading 15th time and Jake Cronenworth walking to load the bases only for Manny Machado to strikeout and Bogaerts to kill the rally completely.
Kim struck back in the second, following David Peralta’s one-out single, with his 11th homer of the season. But Machado bounced into an inning-ending double play in the third inning and Kim bounced into one in the sixth to leave runners at the corners following Jackson Merrill’s one-out triple and a walk from Peralta.
Profar bounced into the team’s fourth double play in the in the ninth inning after the first two runners reach base off new Rockies closer Victor Vodnik.
Bogaerts hit a 447-foot blast in the fourth inning, the second-longest homer of his career, but the Padres went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners in a loss that cost the team ground in the NL West race and prevented them from pulling ahead in the wild-card race.
The Dodgers now lead the division by three games after a come-from-behind win in St. Louis and the Padres and Diamondbacks remain tied atop the NL wild-card race after Arizona’s loss in Tampa Bay.
The Padres, meantime, have lost the season series to the Rockies — who’ve won seven of the first 11 — but they’ve also won eight straight series since the All-Star break. That includes taking two of three from the Rockies at Petco Park after dropping the opener earlier this month.
“Probably a little frustrated after that (first-inning) double play maybe,” Bogaerts said of the distance of his fourth-inning homer. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
He added: “But we’ve been in this situation before. We know how many series we’ve won since the break and we’re playing good with a lot of confidence. Just some balls hit right at guys and on the ground.”
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