Stephen Kolek pushed his glove up to his face and screamed — ahem, something — into it as he walked off the mound as Jackson Merrill settled under a flyball in center field to end the first inning.
Jesus Sanchez had certainly hit that ball hard, 105.4 mph off the bat.
But that ball dropped safely into Merrill’s glove.
Yet somehow five — five?!?! — 100-plus-mph groundballs found holes in a frustrating first inning.
Little did Kolek know that his night was still, amazingly just beginning.
Kolek shook off an unlucky, six-run first inning to pitch into the sixth inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Merrill ended homer droughts and the Padres took advantage of the sloppy Marlins to come from behind to steal an unlikely 8-6 win on Tuesday night in front of a sellout crowd of 40,363 at Petco Park.
How unlikely?
Well, it was just the second time in franchise history that the Padres came back to win a game after giving up six runs in the top of the first inning.
The last time a pitcher for any team to win a game in that scenario as Kolek did despite a 38-pitch first inning: Mark Buerhle in 1999.
“It’s great to get the win,” Kolek said, “but I’m undeserving of that.”
A humble thing to say, to be sure.
Nobody in the Padres’ clubhouse would agree.
Kolek saved a bullpen that covered four-plus innings in Monday’s 11-inning win and a staff that had been scrambling since having to piece together a start in place of the injured Michael King on Saturday.
After Sanchez’s hard-hit flyout to end the first inning, Kolek followed with four more scoreless innings and exited to a hearty ovation after a one-out error in the sixth inning. He struck out three, walked two and finished with 93 pitches — 54 after that disastrous first inning.
“I loved it,” Tatis said. “You can tell what type of guy and pitcher he really is. You saw a lot of good hits but groundballs all over the field in the first inning. It was rough, but he settled back in and gave a good six innings, knowing especially how the bullpen has felt the last game.
“It was huge for us.”
Of course, a double-play grounder that eluded Kolek in the first inning helped him out of the fourth inning. Luis Arraez also started a double play to help Sean Reynolds out of the sixth inning as the bullpen followed Kolek’s gutsy start with 3⅔ scoreless innings to secure the series win.
To do it, the Padres took advantage of three Marlins errors to score in each of the first five innings, with Arraez’s third hit and second run-scoring single of the game giving them a 7-6 lead. Merrill’s eighth-inning homer, his first since May 7, provided an insurance run to allow Jeremiah Estrada to breathe a little easier in getting through a scoreless ninth.
“Blessed to be a part of a great team,” Kolek said. “After the first, just try to do my part to get as deep into the game as I possibly could. But our team is awesome. They’re the best and the way they showed their fight and to have the offense that we did tonight and the great defense. I mean, they played phenomenally behind me and allowed me to stay in the game a lot longer.”
The start to Tuesday’s game was the last thing the Padres needed, what with the team still searching for clarity on the scapula issue that sent King to the injured list over the weekend and Yu Darvish’s progression halted after one successful rehab start at Triple-A El Paso.
Sanchez pounded the fourth pitch of the game through the infield on a 101.2 mph grounder.
An unlikely parade continued after a one-out walk to Eric Wagaman.
Kyle Stowers singled on a 109.2 mph groundball. Liam Hicks followed with a 101.3 mph grounder for a single. Balls off the bats of Ronny Simon and Victor Mesa Jr. at 105.3 and 104.8 mph, respectively, also found holes.
The Marlins also plated a run on a ground ball to Manny Machado when catcher Elias Díaz couldn’t field a short-hopped throw to the plate to cut down a runner on a play, but the mounting frustration in a six-run first inning had everything to do with grounder after grounder finding the outfield grass.
Left-hander Omar Cruz was warming up before Javier Sanoja’s sacrifice fly scored the inning’s sixth run.
Cruz, however, was not needed.
“Just kind of getting to my strengths,” Kolek said of the adjustments thar followed the first inning. “I didn’t feel like I had all of my stuff tonight. I felt like I was kind of grinding and trying to battle the best I could. Whatever we had on the report was like, You know what, let’s just throw that out the window for now and go with what you’re feeling the best. And that’s what me and Diaz were trying to do in between innings and just trying to stay to the strengths and see what was working in the moment, and just take it one batter at a time.”
The Padres’ comeback might have been as unlikely as the Marlins’ first-inning rally.
First, Tatis lined the third pitch he saw 97.8 mph the other way, just inside the right-field foul pole and over the wall for his first home run since May 18.
The first of Simon’s three errors helped score two runs the next inning. The Padres had runners on first and second when Tyler Wade pulled a ball that was headed toward the grass between first and second. Simon made a sliding stab to stop the ball from bouncing all the way into right field, but it caromed off his glove into foul territory, allowing Xander Bogaerts to score from second.
That wasn’t the error.
No, the error was Simon’s wild throw toward the plate after tracking the ball down, allowing a second run to score.
Like Kolek’s, Simon’s night was just beginning.
He was victimized by smart base-running when Merrill slowing to make sure he was not hit by Bogaerts’ batted ball to second base distracted Simon just enough for the ball to slip past his glove for the second run in the third inning.
The next inning, Simon straight-up botched a grounder from Wade and then threw wildly on attempt to turn a double play on a bouncer from Tatis.
Both gaffes opened the door for Arraez’s single to left to tie the game at 6-6.
“That’s what happens when you have a great group of boys out there coming together,” Tatis said. “Everybody knows individually how good we can be, but we’re even better when everybody is coming together as an entire group, playing the good baseball, aggressive baseball, and just not putting excuses out there, just finding a way.”
