AP | AP
DENVER — Charlie Blackmon homered twice to back a 10-strikeout start from Jon Gray, and the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 9-6 on Thursday night despite two homers from Manny Machado.
Blackmon added a two-run triple and finished with four RBIs. Trevor Story also homered for the Rockies, who have won 11 of 12 at Coors Field.
Gray is 10-3 with 135 strikeouts in 18 career starts against San Diego. The strikeouts are the most against the Padres in Colorado franchise history.
San Diego left-hander Matt Strahm (2-6) allowed six runs and seven hits over 3 1/3 innings in his return from the 10-day injured list.
Gray (6-5) got off to a rough start before settling down. San Diego scored twice in the first inning on a double by Eric Hosmer and a single by Machado. Colorado answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning, with Ian Desmond’s two-run double giving the Rockies a 3-2 lead.
Story extended the lead with a two-run homer in the second, his 16th.
Blackmon took over with home runs leading off the fourth and sixth innings, then hit his triple off Matt Wisler in the seventh to give the Rockies a four-run lead.
Both of Blackmon’s two-homer games this season have come against the Padres. He has 14 homers.
Machado cut the deficit to 6-4 with a homer in the fifth and added another solo shot in the ninth, his 12th of the season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: RHP Robert Stock was optioned to Triple-A El Paso to make room on the roster for Strahm. … OF Franchy Cordero (right elbow strain) left Wednesday’s rehab assignment with a left leg injury. “Still waiting on a full rundown of where he is today,” manager Andy Green said. “He tweaked the quad yesterday, wait and see how he responds to that. You don’t typically know about those things until you get a couple of days faster.”
Rockies: Activated LHP Mike Dunn from the 10-day injured list and optioned LHP Phillip Diehl to Triple-A Albuquerque. Dunn missed just 10 days with a left A/C joint inflammation.
UP NEXT
The Padres will send RHP Cal Quantrill (1-2, 4.85) against Colorado RHP Jeff Hoffman (1-3, 8.06) on Friday night. Quantrill, a rookie, is making his sixth career start and first against an NL West opponent. Hoffman is 1-1 with a 0.77 in four career games — two starts — against San Diego.
