DENVER — There was no starting pitcher. The offense breathed, but only briefly.
In the end, it was the bullpen, which has been so good, that kept the Padres stifled.
An inning after three home runs got the Padres to within a run, the Rockies pulled away with two homers of their own off reliever Tim Hill and held on for a 7-3 victory Tuesday at Coors Field.
The Padres fell to 1-5 on the trip that concludes here Wednesday afternoon.
That is 1-5 against the two teams at the bottom of the National League West.
At least the Padres’ incredibly shrinking lead in the NL Wild Card race held at 2½ games over the Cincinnati Reds, who lost earlier Tuesday.
Colorado Rockies pitcher German Márquez had twice as many hits as the Padres through six innings Tuesday night. He had driven in two runs, which was two more than every Padres batter put together.
A team that three days earlier was no-hit by a rookie making his first major league start had one hit — at Coors Field, the massive ballpark a mile high where hits generally proliferate like rabbits.
It seemed Padres batters, who have acknowledged “pressing” lately, were gripping their bats so tightly it was creating a blockage in their airways.
And then they hit three balls a combined 1,336 feet. Two of them reached the seats. All were home runs.
A 450-foot home run by Fernando Tatis Jr., a 400-foot inside-the-park homer by Jake Cronenworth and a 486-foot blast by Tommy Pham in a span of four batters was a much-needed release.
But after Eric Homer singled, advanced to second on a passed ball and third on a groundout, Rockies shortstop Trevor Story made a leaping catch in center field to grab Trent Grisham’s soft liner and end the inning.
Miguel Díaz walked Story to start the bottom of the seventh before Hill came in and yielded consecutive home runs to Charlie Blackmon and C.J. Cron.
Cronenworth’s one-out single in the ninth inning was the Padres’ only offense the rest of the way.
Before the seventh exploded in the flurry of Padres bombs and he was replaced by Jhoulys Chacin following Hosmer’s single, Márquez had yielded only Grisham’s third-inning single and a second-inning walk to Hosmer. The Padres had gone down in order in the first inning (on eight pitches), the fourth (six pitches), fifth (nine pitches) and sixth (eight pitches).
The right-hander, who possesses a highly effective sinker that travels in the mid-90s, got 11 groundball outs to that point.
This came after Antonio Senzatela had allowed them two runs in seven innings on Monday, getting 13 groundball outs and throwing just 83 pitches along the way.
The Padres trailed after the first inning for the third time in four games.
Matt Strahm started the Padres’ second scheduled bullpen game in three days and took 29 pitches to get through the first inning, stranding runners at first and second after the Rockies had scored on two singles and a groundout.
The Rockies made it 3-0 in the fourth inning. Both runs were charged to Reiss Knehr, who had relieved Strahm with one out in the second and pitched a perfect third inning.
Elias Díaz hit a one-out double and scored on Márquez’s single. After Knehr walked Connor Joe, Pierce Johnson entered the game and yielded a soft double to Rodgers that just escaped a diving Pham.
Márquez’s double in the bottom of the sixth off Díaz scored Elias Díaz, who had led off the inning with a triple.
The Padres are batting .218 and have been outscored 44-21 in their past seven games. They have twice lost by a score of 7-0 in that stretch.
