San Diego, CA – Jeff Suppan pitched his way to another win and the Padres sent the Rockies to a fifth straight loss with a 3-1 decision on Tuesday.
Suppan (2-0), who made his first MLB appearance in over a year with five shutout innings over the Brewers last Wednesday, went five frames again and allowed one run on four hits and two walks.
"He's still finding his stamina, but he's got such a huge head on his shoulders. He knows how to change speeds...he's got good pitching instincts," said Padres manager Bud Black of Suppan.
Will Venable went 2-for-4 with a run scored and another driven in for San Diego, which improved to 4-4 on a nine-game homestand that can end in a three- game sweep on Wednesday.
Alex White (0-1), in his first start of the season after getting recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs, was the hard-luck loser, having allowed two runs on six hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings.
"That's as good as I've seen Alex White since we acquired him. He was really, really good...We had opportunities and it got away from us," said Colorado manager Jim Tracy.
A pair of leadoff walks led to the last two San Diego runs.
Jason Bartlett worked a free pass leading off the fifth, moved to second a sacrifice bunt and scored on Venable's double down the left-field line.
Three innings later, Yonder Alonso earned a free pass and raced around to score when Orlando Hudson tripled into the right-field corner.
The Padres were unable to tack on, but a pair of lucky breaks went their way in the ninth.
Dale Thayer gave up a leadoff single to Tyler Colvin, then caught too much of the plate on a pitch to Marco Scutaro two batters later.
Scutaro, though, got too far out in front and hooked his potential tying home run foul down the left-field line. Scutaro later reached on a single to put runners on the corners with one out, but was hit by Jordan Pacheco's would-be single as he was running toward second base, resulting in an out and Colvin going back to third.
Thayer then struck out Carlos Gonzalez to pick up his second save in as many nights.
Both teams scored in the first inning but left runners in scoring position. Todd Helton singled in a run for the Rockies, who left the bases loaded when Ramon Hernandez flied out to right field, and Alonso followed with an RBI single in the bottom half.
Suppan and the Padres' relievers took over from there. Joe Thatcher struck out Colvin to strand two Rockies in the sixth, Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect seventh and Andrew Cashner left a runner on third in the eighth.
Game Notes
Anthony Bass will pitch for the Padres in the series finale, while Christian Friedrich, also called up by the Rockies from Triple-A on Tuesday, will make his first MLB start...White was making his 11th MLB start while Suppan made his 444th appearance at the big league level...The Rockies stranded 11 runners.
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