DENVER _ They said it would all come together.
For one night, in a place that begs teams to break out of offensive slumps, it did come together for the Padres, manifesting in a 7-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
Clayton Richard pitched far better Monday than he had five days earlier against the Rockies in San Diego, and the Padres hit Colorado starter Jon Gray much better than they had that same night at Petco Park.
That included Richard, whose third career homer scored three runs in the fourth. Carlos Asuaje would follow with a solo shot that gave the Padres a 6-4 lead. They would add another in the sixth before the night, as many at Coors Field do, got truly intense.
Seldom do victories in a baseball game played a mile high, where only gravity separates it from being a ballgame on the moon, get settled without drama.
This one had that.
Padres manager Andy Green was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing a replay challenge of Carlos Gonzalez's two-run homer, which left fielder Cory Spangenberg leaped to momentarily grab over the wall but lost as he brought the ball back into play.
A fan appeared to have hit Spangenberg's glove while the ball and glove were on the spectator's side of the wall.
When the umpires' ruling was announced, Green went out to talk to crew chief Brian Gorman. A manager is not allowed to argue replay rulings, and Green was promptly ejected. At that, he threw his cap to the grass and commenced yelling for a while before walking off the field serenaded by boos.
Rule 6.01(e) of MLB's official rules states there is no interference when a fielder reaches over into the stands to catch a ball. "He does so at his own risk," the rule states.
Gonzalez's blast cut the Padres' lead to 7-6.
The tension on the field only increased.
When Charlie Blackmon and D.J. LeMahieu singled off Jordan Lyles to start the seventh, Craig Stammen was called on.
He brought with him a streak of 15 straight inherited runners stranded, dating to last August. Three outs later, the streak was 17.
That inning ended on another sure-handed play by shortstop Freddy Galvis, who ran up to grab a slow roller and throw out the runner. He had earlier made plays to help get Richard out of two innings, one that had already gotten away from him and another that looked like it might. If the plays weren't spectacular, they were certainly difficult enough that they often were not made by Padres shortstops of recent seasons.
Stammen followed with a perfect eighth.
And then, Brad Hand, who last Thursday in San Diego allowed three unearned runs to the Rockies in the ninth inning and earlier against the Brewers had a five-run blow-up in the ninth inning, struck out the side in the ninth for the save.
That was how it went for the Padres on Monday, a sorely needed turn of events following a rough weekend in Houston that had continued a rough start to the season.
The defense remained splendid, as it has mostly been. The pitching _ considering the air that barely exists a mile high, helping fly balls become home runs, and a giant outfield that helps outs become hits _ did too.
And the Padres hit. Not just that, but at the right times.
Having stranded runner after runner over the weekend, going 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position the final two games of their series against the Astros, the Padres on Monday were 5-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the first five innings.
Just five days earlier at sea level, Gray shut the Padres out for seven innings. He took 93 pitches to get through that outing, allowing four hits. This time, he was at 65 pitches after four innings, 83 after five. And that would be the end of his night.
They Padres would go 0-for-8 with runners on second and/or third thereafter, and they would not score off the Rockies' bullpen.
Richard, who went five innings, allowing four runs on five hits while getting 10 ground ball outs, moved into third place on the Padres' all-time list for innings pitched by a left-hander. At 904 2/3, he passed Dave Dravecky (900 1/3) and trails only Randy Jones (1,766) and Bruce Hurst (911 2/3).
But the early scoring was enough with Stammen and Hand doing their jobs in the most difficult place to do so.
