Rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his second leadoff home run in two games — and team-record sixth this season — and the San Diego Padres scored five unearned runs in the sixth inning to beat the Colorado Rockies 9-3 Thursday night.
Tatis broke the old record of five leadoff homers by Will Venable in 2011 when he drove a 1-0 pitch from Jon Gray (10-8) into the home run porch in the right field corner. It was the 22nd of the season for Tatis, who hit a leadoff homer in a 3-2 loss at Seattle on Wednesday.
Manuel Margot homered in the eighth for the Padres, his ninth.
San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr., right, is congratulated by Glenn Hoffman after hitting a home run during the first inning of the team's baseball game against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, in San Diego. (AP PhotoOrlando Ramirez)
The Padres led 3-1 after two before the Rockies tied it on Trevor Story's RBI double in the third and Charlie Blackmon's leadoff homer in the fifth, his 24th.
San Diego jumped ahead 8-3 when the Rockies fell apart in the sixth. The Padres scored five unearned runs on two hits, two walks, two errors and a wild pitch. The inning was extended by Story's two-out throwing error on Luis Urias' grounder, which allowed Francisco Mejia to score. Another run scored on Gray's wild pitch. Gray made way for Jairo Diaz, whose throwing error on Tatis' dinker allowed another run before Wil Myers hit a two-run double.
Gray allowed seven runs — three earned — on six hits in 5 2/3 innings, with four strikeouts and two walks.
Colorado Rockies' Charlie Blackmon (19) is congratulated by Trevor Story (27) after hitting a home run during the fifth inning of the team's baseball game against the San Diego Padres on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, in San Diego. (AP PhotoOrlando Ramirez)
Matt Strahm (5-8) pitched two innings for the win.
Padres starter Eric Lauer allowed three runs and 10 hits in four-plus innings, struck out two and walked none.
The Rockies had runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth before the Padres used some nice defense to get out of the jam. Right fielder Hunter Renfroe threw out Ryan McMahon trying to score from second on Tony Wolters' single to right and then Urias and Tatis, the second baseman and shortstop, turned a double play on Gray's grounder.
San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr., right, is tagged out by Colorado Rockies second baseman Ryan McMahon on an attempted steal of second base during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, in San Diego. (AP PhotoOrlando Ramirez)
FOR EL PASO
In the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, the Padres wore black "EP" caps during batting practice and autographed them to have their Triple-A affiliate, the El Paso Chihuahuas, auction with the proceeds benefiting the El Paso Victims Relief Fund. The Padres are making a $30,000 donation to the fund via a joint contribution from the Padres Foundation, executive chairman Ron Fowler and general partner Pete Seidler said.
BILL WALTON
As part of Grateful Dead Night, San Diego native, basketball Hall of Famer and noted Deadhead Bill Walton played bongo drums during a pregame concert by local tribute band Electric Waste Band in the Park at the Park just beyond center field. Walton also threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which he bounced wide of reliever Trey Wingenter. Walton asked for a re-do and threw a strike. He then joined in on the plate meeting with the umpires and managers, holding court for about three minutes.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Padres: Placed rookie LHP Adrian Morejon on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Wednesday, with a left shoulder impingement, and reinstated LHP Jose Castillo from the 60-day IL.
UP NEXT
Rockies: LHP Kyle Freeland (3-9, 7.24) is scheduled to start Friday night. He's 2-2 with a 4.03 ERA in eight appearances, including seven starts, against San Diego.
Padres: Rookie RHP Cal Quantrill (4-3, 3.57) faces the Rockies for the second. He earned the win in a 16-12 victory at Coors Field on June 14. He allowed four runs and six hits in five innings.
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An investigation into a sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. Those fixers would then bet against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.” The indictment suggests that many others, including unnamed players, had a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
The varying charges against the 26 defendants, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, include bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy. Five of the defendants were described as fixers; three with connections to players through coaching and training and two described as gamblers and sports handicappers.
The fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA games as recently as January 2025, the indictment said. Their scheme grew to involve more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, who then rigged and attempted to rig more than 29 games, prosecutors said.
They wagered millions of dollars, raking in “substantial proceeds” for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes, prosecutors said. Payments to players typically ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, they said.
In a statement, NCAA President Charlie Baker said protecting the integrity of competition is of the utmost importance for the NCAA and that is investigating, or has finished investigating, almost all of the teams in the indictment.
Prosecutors named more than 40 schools that were involved in games that were targeted by the scheme. Those included Tulane University and DePaul University.
Rigged games included those played by teams in major conferences, while some were playoff games, including the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second round of the Southland Conference championship, prosecutors said.
Players often recruited teammates to cooperate by playing badly, sitting out or keeping the ball away from players who weren’t in on the scheme to prevent them from scoring. Sometimes the attempted fix failed, meaning the fixers lost their bets.
To entice players, fixers would text photos of stacks of cash. In one case, a fixer encouraged a player to recruit a Saint Louis University teammate by texting him one such photo: “send that to him if he bite he bite if he don’t so be it lol,” the indictment said.
In another instance, a fixer trying to persuade an Eastern Michigan University player to get two of his teammates to help fix a game against Wright State University texted, “bro let me send 3k right now a band for each of yall so you know I ain’t joking," the indictment said.
Cash payments were hand delivered — although prosecutors noted that a fixer didn't deliver the cash he promised to four Alabama State University players who helped fix a 2024 game against the University of Southern Mississippi.
Four of the players charged — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Oumar Koureissi and Camian Shell — played for their current teams in the last few days, although the allegations against them don't involve this season, but the 2023-24 season.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division I NCAA schools during 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Five others last played in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another, former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, played in the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2022-23 season.
At the end of the Chinese Basketball Association's 2022-23 season, fixers put nearly $200,000 in bribe payments and shared winnings from two rigged games into Blakeney's storage locker in Florida, authorities said.
In 2023, one fixer reassured another by texting him there were no guarantees “in this world but death taxes and Chinese basketball,” court papers said.
The indictment follows a series of NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans this year. The NCAA doesn’t allow athletes or staff to bet on college games.
Meanwhile, more than 30 people were also charged in last year’s sprawling federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional basketball.
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed.
David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against 20 people including 15 former college basketball players, in what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
