Xander Bogaerts homered and tripled in a seven-run second inning and finished a single shy of the cycle, and the surging San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 9-2 in Denver on Thursday.
Ty France and Dustin Harris also had three hits apiece and Jake Cronenworth and Samad Taylor each had two hits for San Diego (84-69), which finished 11-2 against Colorado this season.
The Padres have won 10 of 11 to increase their lead to four games over idle Arizona for the third and final NL wild-card berth.
San Diego is a game behind the Chicago Cubs for the top seed and a half-game back of Philadelphia for the second berth. The Phillies played at the New York Mets on Thursday night.
Michael King (12-9) tossed six solid innings, ending his day when he struck out Troy Johnston with the bases loaded and two outs. He allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks and fanned six.
Mickey Moniak and Brett Sullivan had two hits each for the Rockies (56-97), who have dropped 10 of 11 and are on pace for a fourth consecutive 100-loss season.
Jake McCarthy led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on Connor Norby’s single to make it 1-0, but it disappeared when the Padres jumped on Colorado starter Tanner Gordon.
Bogaerts started the rally with a leadoff homer, his 12th of the season, and San Diego loaded the bases with a single and two walks.
Harris drove in a pair with a single to center, Manny Machado hit a sacrifice fly and France singled to left to put runners on the corners with two outs. Rockies right fielder Zac Veen had two fielding mistakes that resulted in back-to-back triples for Jackson Merrill and Bogaerts to make it 7-0.
Gordon (1-5) allowed seven runs on 10 hits in three innings.
The Padres added two more in the fifth when Taylor followed Cronenworth’s leadoff triple with a double, and he scored on a Harris single.
Colorado scored in the sixth on a two-out single by Kyle Karros.
–Field Level Media
