Victor Caratini hit a late go-ahead grand slam and the San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 in Denver in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Wednesday.
Emilio Pagan (3-0) pitched one inning for the win and Mark Melancon worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh for his 12th save for San Diego.
Trevor Story and Ryan McMahon had two hits each for the Rockies, who have lost five in a row.
The Padres won it with a big sixth inning. Tommy Pham drew a one-out walk and Tucupita Marcano reached on a fielder’s choice. Starter Jon Gray walked Patrick Kivlehan with two outs, ending his day. Caratini then lined reliever Robert Stephenson’s 2-0 fastball over the scoreboard in right to make it 5-1.
It was his third homer of the season and second career grand slam.
Gray (4-3) allowed four runs (one earned) on three hits and walked three in 5 2/3 innings.
Colorado got two back in the bottom of the inning on McMahon’s RBI double and Elias Diaz’s sacrifice fly.
Diaz popped out to end the game.
The Rockies took the lead in the first on Story’s two-out single up the middle to drive in Garrett Hampson. That was the only run against Yu Darvish, who allowed two hits and gave up the unearned run in four innings.
The Padres tied it in the fifth. Marcano led off with a single, and two outs later Caratini was intentionally walked. Gray hit pinch-hitter Austin Nola and then Trent Grisham laid down a bunt single to drive in Marcano.
The Padres put Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer on the COVID-19 health and safety protocol list and juggled their roster to fill in for the missing players. Myers was pulled from Tuesday’s game in the third inning after his test results for the coronavirus came back positive. Hosmer left later in the game for contact tracing issues.
Myers and Hosmer joined Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Jorge Mateo on the injured list. Only Myers and Tatis tested positive while the other three were put on the IL due to tracing issues.
-Field Level Media
