Rockies bats come alive for 15 hits as they pummel Padres

DENVER — Rockies Report, Game 25:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: When the Rockies last saw Walker Buehler in San Diego on April 10, he left them flummoxed, limiting Colorado batters to three hits over six innings. Buehler was efficient, throwing just 68 pitches in that appearance at Petco Park before handing matters to the Padres bullpen.

After he’d recorded just one out in the third inning, Buehler had already surpassed that pitch tally. By that point, he’d already allowed eight hits, four runs and two walks; another free pass later that inning to Edouard Julien would end his night with just eight outs recorded.

The Rockies attacked Buehler, and at one point in the second inning, six consecutive Colorado batters reached base. Four came home that inning, powering the Rox to an 8-3 win that finally got them in the win column after five-consecutive losses to San Diego to open the season series.

“Every day’s different. I know that we carried our approach into the game and committed to it today and made Buehler work, got his pitch count up,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said.

“That was the whole plan, and the boys stuck to it, collectively, with a good outcome.”

Leading the way was catcher Hunter Goodman, who started the barrage with a first-inning double. He ultimately went 3-for-4 with a second-inning double and an eighth-inning homer to cap the scoring. That blast was his sixth of the season.

Get out the purple jacket!!! pic.twitter.com/32TF1CyAUW

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) April 23, 2026

Every Rockies player in the starting lineup recorded a hit as Colorado tallied 15 hits in all to rebound after Tuesday’s 1-0 loss — the team’s first such defeat at home since August 2006.

The Rockies improved to 10-15.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

It’s now two wins in three home starts for Tomoyuki Sugano, who fell one out short of a quality start but nevertheless earned a warm standing ovation from the 18,114 on hand after a 101-pitch outing that saw him limit the Padres to one run on five hits and a walk. That represented a solid bounce-back from his rough appearance last Friday night to open the homestand.

Best of all for Sugano was that he snapped his streak of 10-consecutive starts in which he’d allowed at least one homer, a run that dated back to last August with Baltimore.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Jake McCarthy responded to Luis Campusano’s solo homer in the seventh with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning that pushed Colorado’s advantage back to five runs, at 7-2.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 6 — Number of teams with a worse record than the Rockies, including the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, teams with two of the top four total payroll allocations in Major League Baseball, per Spotrac.

WHAT’S NEXT: Ryan Feltner gets the call as the Rox look to seal their second-consecutive winning homestand. Matt Waldron will start for San Diego in the getaway-day series finale. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. MDT.

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