Padres 6, Rockies 0: First happy flight of the year!

Two weeks ago, who would have expected the Padres to be sitting at .500 ten games into the season? But here they are, having won four of their last six, all against division rivals. While there’s been some pretty solid pitching in those wins, the key to their success so far it the offensive outburst from the top of the lineup. When you have Manuel Margot and Wil Myers opening games with back-to-back doubles, you’re in pretty good shape.

But Manny and Wil weren’t the only guys to get in on the run party. Yangervis Solarte kept the first inning rally going with a RBI single, and then Ryan Schimpf capped it off with a bomb to the bullpen. If you missed the first ten minutes of the game, you missed a grand slam’s worth of runs. Thankfully, you can watch them all right here.

The boys added a couple more runs in the fifth, starting with the top of the order once again. Wil drew a one-out walk, then Solarte and Hunter Renfroe followed with back-to-back singles. A sacrifice fly from Schimpf gave the good guys a six-run lead, something that’s hard to overcome even in Colorado. And the cherry on top of all that hitting? Austin Hedges finally got a hit!

Meanwhile, Zach Lee looked far better today than in his 2015 debut with the Dodgers. He tossed 5.1 shutout innings against the Rockies, allowing just two hits and four walks. The bullpen continued showing up, with everyone but Jake Esch throwing perfect baseball. Esch came on to wrap up the ninth, but after he gave up two walks right away, Andy Green played it safe and sent Brandon Maurer to the mound so everybody could go to the airport and get as far away from Denver as possible.

The Padres have an off day tomorrow, and then they help the Braves open SunTrust Park at 4:35 PM Friday.