In the second inning, Wil Myers hit a 426-foot home run at an exit velocity of 102 mph. In the fourth inning, he did the same thing.

In his first two at-bats, Myers hit two identical home runs in terms of distance and exit velocity to make it a one-run game, and then to tie the ballgame. The offense scored two other runs; on RBI singles from Manny Machado and Trent Grisham.

The five runs from the offense would have been enough to win a ballgame in 79 of the team’s first 121 games (65.3%). But the pitching has struggled a lot in recent weeks.

With the majority of the rotation on the injured list, newly signed Jake Arrieta made his Padres debut. It was cut short after 3-⅓ innings due to a hamstring injury, forcing manager Jayce Tingler to turn to the bullpen in the fourth inning. Arrieta had given up five earned runs.

Nabil Crismatt, the first to pitch of the four relievers, gave up two runs across 1-⅔ innings. But Craig Stammen, Emilio Pagan and Daniel Hudson each threw a scoreless inning, holding the deficit at two runs.

The pitching staff has given up 4.7 runs per game since the start of the second half, as opposed to the first half’s 3.8 runs allowed per game. The Padres are now 2-12 when they have given up five or more runs since the all-star break.

Player of the game:

Wil Myers’ two home runs gives him 15 this season as he raised his season OPS to .786. Myers is a career .352/.401/.633/1.034 hitter at Coors Field.

Up next:

The Padres get a much needed off day Thursday as they fly back to San Diego in preparation for a three-game set with the Philadelphia Phillies. Left-handed pitcher Blake Snell (6-4, 4.80 ERA) gets the ball for the season opener at 7:10 p.m. PT at Petco Park.