The Padres’ top three continued to do their part to make sure the team thrived while playing without its other big three.
And Yu Darvish did his part to give the bullpen a rest, throwing seven scoreless innings in a 7-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday at Petco Park.
The trio of Trent Grisham, Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth did the bulk of the work in putting up three runs in the first inning to get the Padres on their way to their fourth straight victory and sixth in seven games.
Grisham led off the bottom of the first with a triple to right-center field, and Machado followed by sending a slider 386 feet to the seats beyond left field.
Things then got rockier for the struggling Rockies, whose National League-worst record sank to 15-27.
Cronenworth reached on a chopped infield single and went to second on a ground ball by Tommy Pham that could have been a double play if third baseman Josh Fuentes had not bobbled the ball and been forced to settle for getting Pham at first.
After a fly ball to center field by Brian O’Grady, Jurickson Profar appeared to ground out to first base but was safe when pitcher Jon Gray had the ball drop out of his glove as he stepped on the bag — while Cronenworth raced around third and scored.
As Darvish cruised on the mound, allowing four hits and striking out 10, the Padres added two runs in the fourth inning on a walk by O’Grady, Profar’s single and a double to the left field corner by Victor Caratini. They scored twice more in the sixth on two singles, a double by Darvish and two Rockies errors.
Since Fernando Tatis Jr., Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers went on the injured list due to COVID-19 protocols, the three players at the top of the lineup have produced.
While the pitching and defense have been excellent and multiple players have contributed offensively, the Padres’ success in the seven games without Tatis and the six without Hosmer and Myers is due in large part to Cronenworth, Grisham and Machado going a combined 26-for-79 (.329) with a collective on-base percentage of .430 in the past seven games.
Darvish became the first Padres pitcher to make it through six innings this month. He was also the last Padres pitcher to go at least six innings, when he threw 6 1/3 on April 30.
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