Padres 5, Rockies 4: Storm and bats bring thunder

Austin Hedges and Clint Barmes must have found inspiration in today's storms, because they brought some thunder to the ballpark tonight. Their homers led the Padres to their fourth straight win. Tyson Ross had a solid night on the mound, holding the Rockies to 3 runs in 6.1 innings.

Hedges performed on offense and defense, gunning down Brandon Barnes in the top of the third before putting the Friars on the board in the bottom half of the inning with his second homer of the season. Chad Bettis tossed him a slow curve, and Hedges sent it over the left field fences. That lead didn't last long. Colorado led off the fourth with a walk by Charlie Blackmon and a single from DJ LaMahieu. Troy Tulowtizki's single immediately after would have been much worse, but LeMahieu ignored his third base coach and ran straight into Blackmon, who held at third. That resulted in a rundown that caught Blackmon and put runners on second and third. One still scored on a ground out by Carlos Gonzalez, but it could have been much worse.

The Padres took the lead again in the sixth, when Bettis walked Yangervis Solarte and Yonder Alonso to start the inning. Matt Kemp did his second half thing and knocked a two-RBI double into the left center field gap. Once again, the lead didn't hold. In the next inning, Ben Paulsen hit a single to right and then scored on Barnes' two-out triple to left. That ended Ross's night, but he was still on the hook when Brandon Maurer allowed an RBI single by pinch hitter Wilin Rosario.

Then came the decisive bottom half of the seventh. Melvin Upton, Jr. drew a leadoff walk from Christian Friedrich. Friedrich immediately got yanked in favor of Tommy Kahnle. That worked out well for the Padres, as Clint Barmes took Kahnle deep to left field. Troy Tulowitzki tried to claw back with a homer of his own off Joaquin Benoit in the eighth, but Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth and secured a series win.

Andrew Cashner will go for the sweep tomorrow at 1:10 PM.