Padres’ Manny Machado makes incredible catch; Rockies lost sixth straight

Manny Machado’s incredible circus catch and a bullpen hiccup led to the Rockies’ 3-2 loss to the Padres on Saturday afternoon at Coors Field.

In the eighth inning, with one out and Ezequiel Tovar on third base, pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas hit a pop foul between the Padres’ dugout and the tarp down the left-field line. Machado raced over and, just feet from the wall, juggled the ball three times before grabbing it with his bare hand for the out. Then he threw the ball from the seat of his pants to prevent Tovar from breaking toward home.

The Padres escaped the inning and went on to win the game.

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Tovar might have been able to score had he taken off from third when the ball first hit Machado’s glove, but Tovar hesitated for a moment and the chance was gone. Moustakas said he didn’t think Tovar would have been able to score. Rockies manager Bud Black wasn’t sure.

“He might have had a chance, or he might have been thrown out,” Black said. “It would have been a close play — potentially.”

Machado knew he was attempting a difficult and risky play, especially at that point in the game, but he decided to go for it.

“Ultimately, you just have to take a gamble and just try to catch it and keep that guy there,” Machado said. “Once you make the decision, you’ve got to go for it.”

Tovar, Colorado’s rookie shortstop, acknowledged that he didn’t know that he could have broken for home when the ball first hit Machado’s glove.

“My first reaction was that I wanted to make sure that he caught it and then going back and tagging,” Tovar said. “I think it would have been close but I probably could have made it.”

Reliever Jake Bird, who has been so solid this season, was charged with the loss after giving up two runs in the sixth.

Colorado starter Kyle Freeland showed again why he is the Rockies’ John Wayne. True Grit. While the lefty didn’t have his best stuff, he limited San Diego to one run on six hits over five innings. He struck out five and walked two.

Black relieved Freeland after the lefty threw 90 pitches and told Black that he had “emptied the tank.” He added that he thought Freeland “pitched great.”

“The (Padres) grinded me out, that’s for sure, ninety pitches in five innings,” Freeland said. “That’s what their lineup is capable of, but thankfully I was able to keep them off the board as much as possible and give the offense a chance to win the ballgame.

“Buddy came up to me after the fifth inning and asked if I’d emptied it there and I told him, ‘Yeah, I did.’ ”

The Padres got to Bird to take a 3-2 lead. Bird gave up two hits and walked two in the inning, the key blow was a two-run single by Fernando Tatis Jr.

“The two walks are inexcusable,” Bird said. “And then Tatis just poked one the other way.”

The Padres scratched out a run in the first off Freeland, who made a costly mental error. San Diego combined a two-out single by Machado with an RBI single to left by Gary Sanchez. Machado, running with the pitch with Freeland in a full windup, sprinted around third and beat Tovar’s throw to the plate from short.

“That was an absolute lack of mental focus on my part,” Freeland said. “I got the ball from the umpire and for some reason, I went to the back of the mound. It was just a lack of focus and I took the rubber in a full windup instead of the stretch. … It was a free hit-and-run for them, pretty much.”