The San Diego Padres offense started fast and barely stopped, powered by the first two Majors home runs of Ethan Salas’s career in a 9-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night at Coors Field.
Starter Robbie Ray gave the Padres (83-69) a quality start, retiring 10 in a row from the second through the fifth innings, and was backed up by San Diego scoring in five of the first six innings. Kyle Karros hit a two-run home run for Colorado (56-96), who have dropped 15 of 20 games to the Brown and Gold since 2025.
Salas’s first home run came in the second inning, right after having won an ABS challenge to overturn a potential full-count, bases-loaded walk. The rookie then jumped on the first pitch, a middle-cut four-seamer and launched it 426 feet to straight away center field.
The big damage came in an explosive fifth inning, where the Padres chased Rockies starter Mason Adams when Jackson Merrill singled and Xander Bogaerts walked with one out. Reliever Nick Frasso got a groundout that moved both into scoring position for Samad Taylor, who drove them both in with a single, then Salas unloaded on an inside four-seamer for a 372-foot shot to right field and giving himself three RBI for the evening.
The Padres pushed across a first-inning run for the third game in a row, starting with Fernando Tatis Jr. wearing an up-and-in fastball to open the game. Dustin Harris followed up with a walk, but was erased on Manny Machado’s fielder’s choice to third.
Ty France converted Tatis with a sacrifice fly to right field for the first run, the first of two RBI for France on the night, then Merrill singled and Bogaerts walked to load the bases. Jake Cronenworth singled back up the middle on a ball that Ezequiel Tovar fielded on a dive, but had no play as Machado scored to make it 2-0, with the Padres forcing 32 pitches by Adams in the inning.
But Ray was similarly charitable in the home half of the first, walking the leadoff man before a hit by pitch, then after a fly out, another walk loaded the bases. Adael Amador hit into an RBI fielder’s choice, with Machado tagging out the lead man after a slight slip while fielding the ball at third. Ray got out of the inning with a K.
From there on the San Diego starter settled in, buoyed by the ever-increasing run support. The only additional damage came in the sixth, when Connor Norby led off with a double and Karros hit the home run with one down.
Harris had a big role in the lone San Diego runs in the fourth and sixth. He hit his third triple to drive in Taylor in the fourth, then in the sixth led off with a single and scored on an RBI-double by France.
Ray finished with six innings, three hits and three runs allowed plus a pair of walks to go with six strikeouts to earn his 13th win.
David Morgan pitched the seventh, working around a lead off single by striking out two in a row and getting a diving grab from Machado reaching back toward the bag to rob Jake McCarthy of potential extra bases. Morgan also got through the eighth on a pair of fly outs, and a sparkling stop at the other side of the diamond from France for the toss and the one-two-three inning.
Yuki Matsui got the ninth, finishing the game off with a strike out, a ground out, then a pair of walks before a final ground out to seal it.
The fourth and final game of the season series against the Rockies will see San Diego make up the half-game in the standings and equal Arizona and the Cubs in games played.
Michael King (11-9, 3.03 ERA) will get the ball, having won his last three starts and been on a strong run of form that has seen him bring his ERA down from 3.45 at the beginning of August. Colorado counters with right-hander Tanner Gordon (1-4, 5.55 ERA), who has started his last five times out and had a pair of one-run outings to end August, but five and four runs over both his September outings.
First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. PT from Coors Field.