NL West report: Padres, D-backs split in Mexico, Rockies hanging tough

Divisional battles highlighted the week in the National League West.

The San Francisco Giants took two of three games against at home the Dodgers, a series in which runs were at a premium, with 10 runs total between the two teams and two shutouts, nobody scoring more than three in any contest.

Dalton Rushing was in the middle of things, running through the old baseball cycle of perceived slight, followed by retribution with a hit batter, then a hard slide. That was mostly background noise in a rivalry that still has some juice to it even when one team is competitive and the other isn’t.

Tuesday’s game was decided on a three-run home run by light-hitting catcher Patrick Bailey on an extremely hittable slider by Jack Dreyer. That spoiled six scoreless innings by Shohei Ohtani, which reminded Brady Klopfer a lot of Matt Cain’s time in San Francisco.

The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks played south of the border, splitting two games in Monterrey, Mexico.

Mason Miller amazingly didn’t strike anybody out in his two appearances this week, lowering his strikeout rate to a still gaudy 61.4 percent. On Saturday he set a Padres record with 34 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to last August.

Division notes

San Diego has starters Nick Pivetta, Joe Musgrove, and Griffin Canning all on the injured list, so they signed free agent Lucas Giolito last week to a one-year deal worth $3 million plus a mutual option for 2027. He pitched in a tuneup game Saturday in Class-A Lake Elsinore, and left in the third inning after taking a comebacker off his hand, but after the outing Giolito said he was fine, per Marty Caswell.

Arizona lost four games in a row last week before winning Sunday. Over at AZ Snakepit, Ben Siegel wondered how much time Alek Thomas — hitting .213/.253/.400 through Sunday with a career .276 on-base percentage — has before the Diamondbacks pursue other options in center field and/or the roster.

Rockies hanging around

Renee Dechert, who writes for Purple Row and her own Rockies Pitch newsletter, offered some perspective after the Rockies’ Friday win over the New York Mets.

Colorado also won the last two games of that series in New York to complete a weekend sweep, and are now 13-16. Still in last place, but no longer hopeless.

Colorado reached its nadir as a franchise in 2025, losing 119 games, and since then they have revamped the front office for the first time in years — including hiring former Dodgers executives Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes — and have new partial ownership coming as well. Last season, the Rockies lost 50 games before they won their 10th game.

Evan Lang at Purple Row noticed the improvement as well:

The Rockies are still not a great team. The offense has a lot of question marks when it comes to their “swing first and ask questions later” approach to hitting and inconsistent ability to win close games. However, most of the games are still close, the pitching has been shockingly solid—dare I say even good—and they’re keeping fans engaged. Our comments sections are proof positive of that!