C.J. Cron hit a pair of homers and drove in five runs Thursday night as the Colorado Rockies defeated the Padres 7-2 on Opening Day in San Diego.
Cron’s three-run homer off Nabil Crismatt in the fifth erased a 2-1 Padres lead. Cron then opened the seventh with an opposite-field homer to right off Domingo Tapia. Elehuris Montero followed with a home run to give the Rockies back-to-back homers off Tapia.
Right-hander German Marquez (1-0) allowed two runs on five hits and no walks with five strikeouts over six innings to earn the win for the Rockies.
Cron, who finished 4-for-5 and joined Vinny Castilla and Trevor Story as only the third Colorado player to have two homers on Opening Day, gave the Rockies a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first with an RBI single — driving home Kris Bryant, who doubled with one out off of Padres starter Blake Snell (0-1).
The Padres tied the game in their half of the first. Trent Grisham opened the game with a double, moved to third on Juan Soto’s ground out to second and scored on Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly to center. The Padres took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Cron’s errant throw to second on a possible double-play grounder by Matt Carpenter allowed Xander Bogaerts to score.
Yonathan Daza opened the Rockies fifth with a single and moved to second on Charlie Blackmon’s third hit off Snell. Crismatt entered the game and threw a changeup that Cron bounced off the top of the wall in left. Cron’s second homer landed in the first row in right just beyond the leap of Padres right fielder David Dahl.
Snell took the loss, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk with nine strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
The Rockies out-hit the Padres 17-7 with the 2-3-4 hitters in the order going 10-for-15. Bryant was 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Blackmon was also 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored. And Cron had four hits. All nine Rockies starters had at least one hit.
Bogaerts had three hits for the Padres.
Steady rain in San Diego delayed the start of the season by five hours.
–Field Level Media
