Padres strike early, hang on late to beat Rockies, snap 5-game skid

DENVER — The step back as Fernando Tatis Jr. approached third base was again easy to miss. The Padres’ superstar admitted he “probably forgot how to do it” after ending the worst homer drought of his career last month in Seattle. Perhaps he’s about to get the hang of it again.

Tatis’ third homer in his last 10 games got the offense back on track, Randy Vásquez turned in a quality start and the bullpen hung on for a 10-8 win on Saturday at Coors Field to snap the Padres’ five-game skid.

“Whew, yeah,” Tatis said after collecting two of the combined 30 hits and driving in three of the combined 18 runs in the game. “A lot of runs scored, but just happy we got the ‘W.’”

Especially after the role that the same Orioles who swept the Padres to start the week played in bringing the Padres back to within a game of the Dodgers in the NL West.

Among the reasons for a bipartisan crowd of 43,461 to cheer Saturday night was the video highlight of Jackson Holliday’s home run spoiling Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning and then the manual scoreboard in right field reflecting the Orioles’ second straight walk-off win over the National League West leaders.

The Cubs, Mets and Giants also lost, strengthening the Padres’ standing for at least a day as the NL’s second wild-card team.

Which made it all that more imperative that the Padres did not let a classic Coors Field affair slip through their fingers.

Called up from Triple-A El Paso, where he spent a spell on the paternity list, Vásquez allowed three runs in six innings in his first appearance at any level since Aug. 23.

But a 10-3 lead is never all that safe in Denver’s thin air.

Jordan Beck’s three-run homer off Jeremiah Estrada forced Mason Miller to stop the bleeding in a four-run seventh and even he needed a double play to get out of an eighth-inning jam with the tying run on base. Then Robert Suarez survived Mickey Moniak’s ninth-inning homer and Beck’s two-out single to hold on for the win.

“It’s never dull sometimes here, but overall a good ballgame,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Offense was terrific. Vásquez was fantastic. Just what the doctor ordered from him:  Six rally quality innings.”

The offense made it for Vásquez early on.

Rockies right-hander McCade Brown fetched three groundballs to breeze through the first inning, extending the Padres’ scoreless streak to 12 innings after an alarming shutout loss here on Friday.

But it didn’t take long for the Padres to flip the script, and they were more than willing to let a rookie pitcher in the most unforgiving environment in the majors dig his own hole.

Two hit batters sandwiched Ramón Laureano’s second-inning single, loading the bases for Jake Cronenworth, who promptly singled off Brown to plate the first run of the game.

Freddy Fermín followed with a two-run double and Tatis opened up a 6-0 lead with his 20th homer of the season to secure the third 20-20 season of his career.

The blast to the deepest part of the park in left-center, an estimated 441 feet, was also the furthest by any Padre this season.

Tatis went back to left-center in the fourth only to have center fielder Brenton Doyle track down a drive at the wall, 419 feet from the plate. (Yes, it would have been a home run in every other ballpark.)

Tatis looked like an MVP when he homered 12 times in 44 games to start the year. His latest home run drought — 32 days, 27 games and 132 plate appearances — ended on Aug. 25.

Tatis homered again in Wednesday’s loss and his three-run shot on Saturday punctuated a six-run second inning.

It might, however, take a few more blasts and a few more wins before his trademark, emphatic stutter-step returns.

“It’s like emotion,” Tatis said. “I need to feel good and the team needs to feel good. If we stay more consistent, more celebration will come with that.”

The Padres weren’t done, as they added on four runs in what proved to be a game-winning rally in the fifth. Fermín drove in his third run on his second hit of the game, Mason McCoy added his first hit and RBI of the season and Luis Arraez’s third hit of the game plated two.

The only Padre without a hit was Manny Machado as Ryan O’Hearn reached base five times and matched Arraez with three hits. Tatis, Fermín and Laureano each had two hits.

“I just think this is one of those places where you have to keep playing because crazy stuff happens,” O’Hearn said. “Runs can happen quick. I feel like the games are longer here because of that. Just gotta keep playing, keep tacking on runs. You can never get too comfortable here.”

Even Jackson Merrill got his first hit since coming off the injured list, although he was removed for precautionary reasons late in the game as the Padres kept an eye on the left ankle that was hit by a pitch in the second inning.

“Dude, what the (expletive), man?” Merrill said. “It’s so annoying. I don’t have any thoughts about it. It could have hit me anywhere else, but it went to the same exact spot that I have been dealing with. So that was awesome.”

He added: “I could have stayed in. … There’s no doubt about it, I’m playing tomorrow. I’m done with being hurt.”

Vásquez allowed three runs — two earned — on eight hits in six innings. He threw 60 of his 77 pitches for strikes and didn’t walk a batter, which helped his cause quite a bit when Hunter Goodman homered for the second day in a row as there was no one base for his sixth-inning shot.

That, like the offense adding on, proved to be the difference after the Rockies rallied for six runs over the final four innings.

“I’m really impressed with the way I was able to go out there,” Vásquez said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. “Obviously I haven’t been in any game situations in a very long time, but throwing my bullpens and my throwing program, I felt like I was prepared.

“I was very happy that I was able to contribute to this team win.”