Xander Bogaerts' walk-off grand slam pushes Padres past Rockies in 12 innings

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Apr 10, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres closed out an ugly game Thursday with a beautiful defensive play in the top of the 12th inning and Xander Bogaerts’ walk-off grand slam in the bottom half for a 7-3 victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies.

Bogaerts came to bat with the bases loaded after a sacrifice bunt by Fernando Tatis Jr. and intentional walks to Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado.

Before that, second baseman Jake Cronenworth and Luis Campusano teamed up for a play that had to be executed perfectly in order to be successful.

With a runner on third and one out, Colorado’s Brenton Doyle grounded a ball up the middle that Cronenworth fielded on the edge of the grass and threw home to the exact spot it needed to be for Campusano to catch the ball and tag out Willi Castro as he slid by.

David Morgan, who had gotten the final two outs in the 11th inning, then finished off the top of the 12th.

Both teams scored a run in each of the first two extra innings.

The Rockies took their second lead on Brett Sullivan’s leadoff double in the 11th before Jeremiah Estrada and Morgan worked out of that jam.

Gavin Sheets led off the bottom of the 11th with a single that moved Bogaerts, the automatic runner, to third before Nick Castellanos lined out and pinch-hitter Ramón Laureano struck out. Campusano then turned in his first bit of heroics, lining a single to left field to tie the game.

The Rockies scored in the 10th on Tyler Freeman’s single and the Padres on Machado’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

The Rockies went ahead for a second time when Sullivan doubled in the automatic runner leading off the 11th against Estrada.

Estrada, who had worked the 10th, walked a batter and got the first out of the 11th with a strikeout before being replaced by Morgan. Morgan finished off the top half of the inning with a groundout and a strikeout.

The Padres’ fifth victory in six games put them over .500 (7-6) for the first time this season.

Padres starter Randy Vásquez fell one out shy of his third quality start of the season, walking off the field to a loud ovation after allowing one run in 5 2/3 innings.

It was by far his most laborious outing of 2026.

Vásquez has found a few extra ticks on his fastball over the course of last season. He has developed a deeper trust in his considerable number of other offerings.

He finished last season and began this one by striking out more batters and having fewer batters reach base. Thursday was his second game this season with eight strikeouts, double the number of times he did it in his first 51 career starts.

But he has in his past two starts also returned to being the traffic cop.

Fortunately for him and the Padres, he is pretty good at keeping the baserunners he allows from making it home.

Vásquez did not make it through any of the six innings he began without at least one Rockies batter reaching base. He got help in the second inning when catcher Freddy Fermin threw out a runner trying to score and help in the fifth inning when the Rockies’ Jake McCarthy unsuccessfully tried to turn a single into a double.

The Rockies made Vásquez throw a lot of pitches from the start, including on their two nine-pitch strikeouts in the first two innings.

He threw just 10 pitches in the third inning, but one of them was hit by Doyle 408 feet and over the wall in center field.

The Padres tied the game in the bottom of the inning on singles by Fermin and Cronenworth and a sacrifice fly lined to left field by Tatis.

They flubbed their other two chances at scoring before extra innings — the sixth when Machado was gifted two bases and in the eighth when Tatis walked and stole second base before being picked off there right before Machado singled.