PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writer
DENVER (AP) — Dale Thayer didn’t think it was all that bad of a fastball. Not hit-it-out-to-straightaway-center bad, anyway.
Justin Morneau jumped all over a two-out pitch from Thayer in the 10th for a two-run homer, lifting the Colorado Rockies to an 8-6 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
“I didn’t think it was going out at first,” Thayer said. “But it doesn’t surprise me it went out. He hit it hard.”
That Morneau definitely did. It was the sixth walkoff homer of his career.
For a moment, though, Morneau thought maybe he didn’t get enough of the pitch. When Cameron Maybin drifted back toward the wall in center, Morneau thought the athletic outfielder just might have a play on it.
Maybin had no chance, though, leaving Thayer (2-2) to shake his head. After all, it was a 3-2 pitch that was down and only slightly on the plate.
Morneau sprinted around the bases to the applause from the crowd and flipped his helmet off after passing third. He was mobbed at home by his teammates.
“Justin is having a phenomenal season,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “Great to see him get the big hit.”
Nick Masset (1-0) pitched a perfect 10th for his first win with Colorado.
LaTroy Hawkins blew his first save of the season in the ninth as he surrendered a tying two-run homer to Everth Cabrera in a contest that was there for the Padres’ taking despite sending a reliever to the mound for his first major league start and hitting into a triple play.
“This was a game that was in the balance the whole way,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “Both teams kept pecking away at each other the whole game, which is typical of this ballpark.”
Seth Smith and Rene Rivera hit solo homers for the Padres, who return home following a 3-3 road excursion.
Starter Juan Nicasio didn’t have his best stuff, but was bailed out all afternoon by his defense, no more so than in the third. With runners on first and second, third baseman Nolan Arenado fielded a grounder by Carlos Quentin and stepped on the bag. He threw to second baseman D.J. LeMahieu, who relayed the ball on to first for the triple play.
Quentin was originally ruled safe at first, but the second base umpire called Smith for baserunner interference as he slid into second.
“That was different than anything I’ve ever seen,” Morneau said.
The momentum from that play ignited the offense as the Rockies scored four runs in the bottom of the frame. Charlie Blackmon had a two-run single and Dickerson added a two-run homer.
Usually a reliever, Donn Roach made his first major league start as he filled in for Andrew Cashner, who went on the 15-day disabled list because of soreness in his pitching elbow.
Roach was on a pitch count and out of the game early, giving up four runs in three innings.
“We knew this was going to be a game where we used our (bullpen) guys, just based on the situation we were in,” Black said. “There’s no doubt our guys did their part, even though we gave up eight runs. They kept us in the game at Coors Field.”
Black elected to bat Roach eighth in the order and third baseman Alexi Amarista ninth, just to give the team more double-switch flexibility early in the game.
It worked, too, when Roach was lifted for Will Venable in the fourth, with Venable hitting an RBI single.
Roach couldn’t find his rhythm in the first as he walked leadoff batter Blackmon and then Dickerson.
It didn’t matter, though, as both were thrown out trying to steal second — with a little assistance from replay.
Blackmon was originally called safe on his steal attempt, but Black requested an appeal and the umpires overturned the call.
After Dickerson walked, he tried to steal and, like Blackmon, was called safe when the tag was high. Black jogged out of the dugout to appeal, with the umpires again reversing the call.
According to the team, it’s the first time a manager has successfully overturned two calls in the same inning.
NOTES: The last time San Diego hit into a triple play was April 15, 2012, at Los Angeles against the Dodgers. … Both teams are off Monday. … The triple play in the third was Colorado’s first since Tulowitzki turned an unassisted one on April 29, 2007, against Atlanta.
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