Former Southeast Missouri State baseball standout Joey Lucchesi earns first MLB win against Rockies

Padres starting pitcher Joey Lucchesi delivers a pitch to the Rockies' DJ LeMahieu during the first inning Tuesday in Denver. Lucchesi, who helped Southeast Missouri State to back-to-back OVC titles in 2015 and 2016, picked up his first major-league victory. He struck out eight batters, walked one and allowed four and two runs hits over six innings.

David Zalubowski ~ Associated Press

DENVER -- One bad pitch at Coors Field could have rattled Padres rookie Joey Lucchesi. It didn’t, and he settled down to pitch a gem for his first major league win.

Lucchesi, a standout at Southeast Missouri State University, overcame an early error and home run to dominate until the seventh inning, Hunter Renfroe hit a go-ahead homer and San Diego beat the Colorado Rockies 5-2 on Tuesday night.

Renfroe’s three-run shot in the seventh backed Lucchesi’s strong outing and gave the Padres their first series victory of the season.

“It feels awesome,” said Lucchesi, who was given a beer shower by his teammates after the game. “It feels great.”

Lucchesi (1-0) shut down Colorado in his third career start. He struck out eight and allowed two unearned runs before leaving two batters into the seventh.

“It was fun to watch that kid pitch. He was really good,” San Diego manager Andy Green said. “I was hoping to get him through the seventh inning. Up to that point he hadn’t shown any signs of wearing down at all. He looked strong. All day very good after that blip in the first inning.”

Austin Hedges also homered, Jose Pirela had three hits and Brad Hand pitched the ninth for his fourth save.

Padres outfielder Manuel Margot left in the ninth inning after getting hit in the ribs by Scott Oberg’s fastball. Green said he was getting checked out but there was no immediate update on his status.

“Obviously caught him flush in the ribs and stung him pretty good,” Green said. “We’re hopeful he’s feeling a little bit better pretty soon.”

Renfroe hit the first pitch from reliever Brian Shaw (1-1) with two out in the seventh. It was his first homer of the season and came after a pair of two-out singles. It also gave the outfielder a little payback after Shaw struck him out on a cutter in a seven-pitch at-bat Monday.

“Same pitch he swung through yesterday,” Shaw said. “Obviously, today he got it.”

Trevor Story’s two-run homer in the first – his third of the season – came one out after Chris Iannetta reached on an error by Lucchesi. The rookie left-hander found a groove after that, retiring 16 of the next 18 batters and erasing the two runners with double plays. He left after Nolan Arenado led off the seventh with a triple off the scoreboard in right and Story walked.

“Went out in the first inning and felt great, felt loose, as I should be,” Lucchesi said. “I had one bad pitch and recuperated and was able to get the job done.”

Kazuhisa Makita came on and stranded both runners with a flyout, a strikeout and a foul out.

Colorado has lost three straight despite another strong outing from Tyler Anderson. The left-hander was effective over six innings but remains without a decision through three starts. He pitched six shutout innings last week in San Diego, and the Padres managed just two runs off him Tuesday before he left for a pinch-hitter.

“Other than those two walks, for the most part I was in the strike zone a lot, which is always good,” Anderson said.

Pirela had an RBI double in the third and Hedges hit a leadoff homer in the fifth that tied it at 2.