The Padres kept rolling Wednesday night, beating the Rockies 9-3 and nudging their record to 83-69. With Arizona’s comeback attempt against the Marlins coming up short, San Diego’s magic number is down to seven. That means the Padres need a combination of seven wins or Diamondbacks losses to keep trimming the path forward.
The box score had plenty in it, starting on the mound. Robbie Ray worked six innings, struck out six and gave up three earned runs. David Morgan followed with two clean relief frames, allowing one hit while striking out two, and Yuki Matsui closed it out by walking two and striking out one.
At the plate, the Padres spread the damage around. Dustin Harris, Jake Cronenworth and Samad Taylor each finished with two hits, while Jackson Merrill added three. But the night belonged to Ethan Salas.
Salas launched his first career home run in the second inning, a 426-foot blast, then came back in the fifth and crushed his second career homer, a 372-foot two-run shot. That made him the youngest catcher in MLB history to post a multi-home run game at 20 years and 107 days old.
The company he joined only sharpened the scale of the night. The last five players to do that at a younger age than Salas were Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.
Afterward, Salas said his recent offensive success has helped him feel more settled after a long drought to begin his MLB career.
“Kind of feels like I’m playing now,” Salas said after the game, “instead of just like being a part of the team just watching. It always feels good to put your two cents into the win.
And just after the triple, everything kind of loosened up a little bit. And thankfully, today was a good day.”
When the list of names around him was brought up, Salas tried to frame the moment plainly.
"I'm just a kid playing baseball, man," Salas said. "So it's pretty crazy to be in company with such high-caliber guys like that."
Mason Miller also had praise for a teammate, saying he believes that player is not only the most valuable pitcher in the Padres’ bullpen, but in any bullpen in MLB. Miller pointed to the way that teammate prepares and the way he attacks hitters.
“There are so many guys that have really good stuff in this game, but the reason he’s able to throw so often and so many innings is obviously what he does to prepare for the games, but also his ability to go after guys, strike guys out if he needs to," Miller said.
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