SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres gave away a couple of costly doubles, then hit three doubles of their own plus a little more.
Misplays by two outfielders helped the Colorado Rockies to an early lead and shortened the night of Reiss Knehr, who was making his major league debut. But the Padres tightened up and fought their way back to a 4-2 victory Friday night at Petco Park.
Down 2-0, the Padres scored a run in the fourth inning on Jake Cronenworth’s double and Trent Grisham’s RBI single. Two runs in the sixth came on Cronenworth’s single, Manny Machado’s double, an RBI groundout by Grisham and Wil Myers’ double. Machado’s single in the seventh scored Tommy Pham, who had singled and gone to second on a wild pitch.
Miguel Diaz (3-1) relieved Knehr with two outs in the fourth and threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings before Tim Hill, Austin Adams and Mark Melancon finished the game. Melancon’s perfect ninth inning earned him his major league-leading 27th save.
Knehr threw 76 pitches in making it through just 3 2/3 innings because of his own wildness and misplays by Grisham in center field and Pham in left.
Grisham got a late jump on Trevor Story’s line drive leading off the second inning. The ball screamed just over Grisham’s glove, and Story had a double. Knehr followed by walking three straight batters, the last of which brought in a run.
Knehr ended the inning by striking out Chris Owings on a 94 mph fastball at the top of the zone, getting pitcher Kyle Freeland on a fly ball to shallow left field and Raimel Tapia on a pop fly.
In the top of the third, Knehr retired the Rockies’ second and third hitters before hitting Story, who stole second. Knehr then struck out McMahon.
The right-hander got two quick outs in the fourth and appeared to strike out Owings to end the inning, but the pitch in the upper corner of the zone was called a ball, and Knehr walked Owings on the next pitch. Freeland followed with what seemed a routine fly ball to left field that Pham mistakenly took two steps in on before retreating in a hurry in what proved a futile chase. The ball went off his glove, and Freeland was credited with an RBI double.
