Fish in a barrel: Stephen Kolek shrugs off unlucky first, Padres storm back to win

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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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-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.

Amazingly, Kolek earned the victory himself despite throwing 39 pitches in a frustrating first inning that saw left-hander Omar Cruz warming in the bullpen.

Sanchez’s hard-hit flyout to end the first inning allowed Kolek to stay in the game. He followed with four 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.

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.

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 Michael King to the injured list over the weekend and Yu Darvish’s progression curiously halted after his 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 ground ball. 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 contact play, but the mounting frustration in a six-run first inning had everything to do with grounder after grounder finding the outfield grass.

Cruz was even warming before Javier Sanoja’s sacrifice fly scored the inning’s sixth run.

The Padres’ comeback might have been as unlikely as the Marlins’ first-inning rally.

First, Tatis lined the third pitch he saw 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 Ronny 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 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.