Padres dominate Rockies with a record-breaking night at Coors Field

Saturday evening in Colorado became a historic evening for the San Diego Padres. Playing the beleaguered Rockies, the Padres dropped jaws with a stunning 21-0 shutout victory at Coors Field. It wasn't merely a blowout, it was the widest margin of victory in team history and one of the largest shutout victories in all of MLB since 1900.Right-hander Stephen Kolek was the center of the Padres' historic evening.In his second career start, he threw a complete-game shutout, the first Padres to ever do so at Coors Field. No visiting pitcher had accomplished that since Clayton Kershaw in 2013. Kolek also set the MLB record for the biggest shutout by a single pitcher, a 21-0 gem, the same as Red Ruffing in 1939 and Ed Siever in 1901.As Stephen Kolek muzzled the Rockies, San Diego's offense was not so quiet. They scored early and frequently, illuminating the scoreboard in each inning up to the sixth. The team accumulated 24 hits, a franchise record. Jackson Merrill paced the way with four hits, and five Padres hit home runs, among them Gavin Sheets, who slammed a 439-foot bomb. Fernando Tatis Jr. contributed a three-run homer in the fifth, which not only extended the score to 19-0 but also put him ahead of Tony Gwynn on the franchise home run list.The 21-run shutout victory broke the Padres' all-time largest margin of victory, a 16-run victory in 2021. It was one short of the MLB's all-time shutout mark of 22 runs. The 21-run sum represented the Padres' second highest in history, trailing only a 24-run affair, also in 2021.With the lineup now healthy for the first time Jake Cronenworth was only just off the injured list the offense has scored 34 runs the last two games. Manager Mike Shildt praised the team afterward, describing the at-bats as "competitive" and commenting that he loved seeing all of the players in the lineup contribute. Eight players had multi-hit games, and every player appeared to be on.Stephen Kolek, despite the extended offensive innings, remained alert and prepared. "Whenever they're putting up five to eight runs an inning, it tends to get kind of cold in the dugout," he said with a smile. But he maintained his pace and became the first Padres pitcher since 1986 to pitch a shutout in one of his initial two MLB starts.Also Read: Colorado Rockies’ Nightmare Season Continues With Record-Setting Losses Since 1950