Padres 9, Rockies 2: Bogaerts Homers and Triples in the Same Inning

A homer, a triple, and two chances at a single that never came

September 17, 2026 - Denver - Xander Bogaerts homered to left leading off the second at Coors Field. He tripled to center later in the same inning. The MLB recap said no Padre had ever done that in one inning. He doubled in the fifth. He needed a single for the fourth cycle in franchise history. He struck out looking in the sixth. He struck out swinging to lead off the ninth.

The San Diego Padres still beat the Colorado Rockies 9-2. They scored seven in that second inning. They took three of four in Denver. They have won 10 of 11 and went 6-1 through San Francisco and Colorado. Manager Craig Stammen, per the MLB recap: "We took care of business on the trip."

Cloudy. 74 degrees. Wind 2 mph in from left. First pitch 1:10 p.m. Attendance 16,674. The game lasted 2 hours, 51 minutes. San Diego had 15 hits and eight extra-base hits. Colorado had nine hits, one error, and a starter who did not finish the third.

Seven runs before Campusano made the last out

Jake McCarthy had already tripled to lead off the first. Connor Norby singled him home. 1-0 Rockies. Michael King settled in after that. The rest of the afternoon belonged to the visitors.

Bogaerts tied it with the solo shot, his 12th. Luis Campusano struck out. Jake Cronenworth singled. Samad Taylor walked. Fernando Tatis Jr. walked. Bases loaded. Dustin Harris lined a two-run single to center. Cronenworth scored. Taylor scored. Tatis to third. 3-1.

Manny Machado lifted a sacrifice fly to Zac Veen in right. Tatis scored. 4-1. Ty France singled. Harris to third. Then the inning turned into the clip Coors will play all winter. Jackson Merrill tripled on a fly that Veen deflected, Harris and France scoring. 6-1. Bogaerts tripled to center, Merrill scoring. 7-1. Campusano grounded out. Ten men up. Seven runs. Bogaerts with a homer and a triple before the inning closed.

The ESPN recap said Veen had an adventurous second: back-to-back balls to him became triples, including Merrill's looping fly near the line that bounced off him. That is Coors on a Thursday. That is also a Padres lineup that did not wait for the thin air to do the work.

King through six, two more in the fifth, and a Wild Card cushion

King (12-9) went six innings. Seven hits. Two runs. Two walks. Six strikeouts. One hundred four pitches. The ESPN recap called it his staff-leading 31st start. Colorado's other run came in the sixth, Kyle Karros singling Cole Carrigg home. Two runs in six innings at this park is a win even before the lineup scored nine.

San Diego added two in the fifth. Cronenworth tripled. Taylor doubled him home. Harris singled Taylor home. 9-1. Harris finished 3-for-5 with three RBI. France went 3-for-4 with a double. Cronenworth had two hits, a triple, and two runs. Taylor went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs. Five Padres had multi-hit games. The MLB recap said San Diego piled up 29 runs and 52 hits across the four-game set.

Tanner Gordon (1-5) lasted three innings. Ten hits. Seven runs. Two walks. Three strikeouts. One homer. Eighty-six pitches. The ESPN recap said the outing extended a streak of Rockies starters failing to earn a win to 20 games. Colorado is 56-97.

Yuki Matsui threw a scoreless seventh. Griffin Canning threw two more. The high-leverage group stayed in the pen. That was the point of a 9-2 on the last day of a road trip.

Four games on Arizona, six to play before they meet

The win put San Diego four games ahead of idle Arizona for the last National League Wild Card, the MLB recap said. The Padres and Diamondbacks finish the regular season with three games at Petco next weekend. Before that: three with Miami, three with the Dodgers. Stammen, per the MLB recap: "We've got six big games before we play the Diamondbacks. We've got to take care of business in those six games. Just like we did on this road trip."

San Diego is 84-69. The Cubs and Phillies sit a game ahead for the top two Wild Card spots, and the Padres have already lost the tiebreaker to both. Home playoff baseball is still a climb. Control of the last spot is not. It is in their hands if they keep winning the series they are supposed to win.

Bogaerts will think about the sixth and the ninth. A single in either one is a cycle. Two punchouts are a 3-for-5 with a homer, a triple, a double, and two RBI that still owned the afternoon. The cycle can wait. The Wild Card lead cannot.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put San Diego at 19 team fantasy points, second on Thursday. Bogaerts had 10 hitting FP. Harris, Cronenworth, France, and Taylor each had 6. King had 15 pitching FP. Colorado finished at minus-6.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*