DENVER _ The Padres and their fans can be thankful that won't happen again until next season.
The Padres got swept out of Coors Field by the Rockies on Sunday, losing 10-5 in what started as the most competitive contest of the three-game series and ended as the biggest blowout.
And that was after Josh Naylor's two-run homer in the ninth.
The Padres' 3-7 record here this season ties for their fourth-worst mark in 25 years visiting Coors Field.
The difference Sunday was Padres relievers, who had kept them in the first two games here this weekend, leaked in the seventh inning.
The story of the series and the season series, however, was the new low achieved by Padres starters in the 10 games a mile high in 2019.
Cal Quantrill, the third of the bubble starters for 2020 to pitch here in the most unfair of ballparks, fared the best.
He was out of Sunday's game after three innings, having allowed four runs on six hits and thrown 75 pitches.
Padres starting pitchers lasted a total of 34 2/3 innings in 10 games in Colorado's thin air this season. This is always a difficult place to pitch, as breaking balls don't break and fly balls become home runs and a massive outfield swallows up bloop singles and doubles to both gaps. The 6.19 ERA Coors Field has yielded leads the majors by almost a run.
But the Padres' 15.35 ERA this season is their highest in 25 years of coming to play the Rockies since they moved into the park in Denver's Lower Downtown.
This series, remarkably but not surprisingly, was not the Padres' starters worst here this season. Joey Lucchesi allowing eight runs in 3 2/3 innings Friday, Eric Lauer six runs (four earned) in 2 2/3 innings Saturday and Quantrill surrendering the four earned runs Sunday was more than two runs better than the 17.51 ERA Padres starters posted in a four-game series here in June. The 92 total runs scored in that series comprised a major league record for a four-game series.
Few series may ever approach that one in terms of wildness. But it is usually an adventure at Coors Field, and this weekend was standard loopy. The Padres fell behind 8-2 Friday and lost 10-8 and were down 9-2 Saturday before losing 11-10.
The Padres trailed 4-1 on Sunday when Seth Mejias-Brean pinch-hit for Quantrill leading off the fourth.
Mejias-Brean walked but ended up stranded at second, which was the least disappointing of the Padres' first four innings. They had runners at first and second with one out in the first two innings and runners at the corners with one out in the third and failed to drive any of those home.
Their run came on Luis Urias' homer leading off the third.
With Rockies starter Chi Chi Gonzalez out, Eric Hosmer led off the fifth inning with a single against Yency Almonte, and Wil Myers' 18th home run of the season and 10th of his career at Coors Field closed the gap to 4-3.
After Michael Baez pitched a scoreless fourth and Javy Guerra got the next five outs but also walked two runners, Andres Munoz came in to strike out Raimel Tapia for the final out of the sixth. However, he allowed a double and single starting off the seventh, putting the Rockies up 5-3. After a walk, David Bednar replaced Munoz.
Bednar, who threw a scoreless inning Saturday and allowed just one hit in 5 2/3 innings since his Sept. 1 call-up, promptly had a 2-1 fastball driven into the left-field seats by Josh Fuentes.
Robbie Erlin, the first non-rookie to pitch for the Padres on Sunday, surrendered a solo homer to Ryan McMahon in the ninth.
The three starters that worked here this weekend will be fighting for jobs (or maybe only one job) in spring training in five months, if they are all still around after the Padres work the trade market this offseason.
The team will be in search of a top-level starter to add to Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack and Garrett Richards. Even if they don't acquire another starter, there likely will be no more than two rotation spots available.
Quantrill was for a time in the second half seemingly headed toward being a front-runner to hold down a spot in the back end of next year's rotation. In his first seven games (six starts) in the second half, Quantrill yielded a 1.79 ERA in 40 1/3 innings and was in that span arguably the Padres' most dependable starter.
Among the four starts since, Sunday's was arguably his best, as he allowed only half as many runs as he had in each of the previous three.
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