Padres hurler equals Red Sox legend Red Ruffing’s 85-year-old feat in dominant outing vs Rockies

The San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies played out a thriller in the series opener on Friday, won 13-9 by the Padres. However, the second game of the series on Saturday was anything but a thriller as San Diego dismantled the Rockies for one of the most dominant wins in MLB history.

The Padres shook the crowd at Coors Field by annihilating the hosts for a 21-0 shutout win. It was the largest margin of victory for San Diego in franchise history.

It was a historic night for Padres ace Stephen Kolek, making just the second start of his career. Kolek pitched nine scoreless innings, with Red Ruffing (1939) and Ed Siever (1901) for the largest shutout wins by a pitcher since 1900.

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Colek is also just the second visiting pitcher in the last 15 years to shutout the Rockies, first since Los Angeles Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw in 2013. It was also the first shutout by a Padres pitcher at the ballpark in 30 years.

“My mindset every time was to get us back in the dugout as fast as possible,” Kolek said. “Put up another zero as quick as I can. Let those guys stay hot.”

Padres ace shares peculiar issue in historic Rockies thrashing

While Stephen Kolek was dialed in from the mound for the Padres, he had a peculiar issue on Saturday; trying to keep himself warm in the dugout during the slugfest from his teammates.

"Whenever they're putting up five to eight runs an inning, it tends to get kind of cold in the dugout,” Kolek said. “You've got to get yourself warmed back up, stay active.”

Interestingly, Kolek said he doesn't remember even going nine shutout innings at any level in his career. He joined Jimmy Jones as the only other Padre to pitch a shutout game in the first two starts of his career.

The historic slugfest witnessed 10 out of 11 Padres batters register a hit, with five going deep on Saturday. It also sets up an intriguing rubber game with the series tied 1-1.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash