No quit Kolek, Padres regroup vs. Marlins for huge comeback win

SAN DIEGO -- When Stephen Kolek walked off the mound after half an inning, the Padres trailed by six runs and Kolek had thrown a whopping 38 pitches.

Who, then, could have envisioned this?: Two hours later, there was Kolek, walking off that very same mound, to a huge ovation … with a lead.

The Padres right-hander bounced back from a rough -- and, frankly, unlucky -- first inning on Tuesday night at Petco Park. In the meantime, San Diego rallied its way to an 8-6 victory over the Marlins, helping Kolek make an obscure bit of history.

He became the first pitcher to earn a win after allowing at least six runs in the first inning since Mark Buehrle did so for the White Sox in 2006. He’s the first to do so with all of those runs being earned since Bartolo Colon for Cleveland in 1999.

“After the first, I just tried to do my part to get as deep into the game as I possibly could,” Kolek said. “Our team is awesome. They’re the best, the way they showed their fight.”

As strange as it sounds, Kolek didn’t pitch all that poorly in the six-run Miami first. Seven of the first eight batters hit ground balls. Only one resulted in an out. There was a close play at third base that maybe should have been challenged. There was a fielder’s choice, with a perhaps ill-advised decision by Manny Machado to throw home, resulting in a run.

On top of that, the Marlins ran up the score with seeing-eye single after seeing-eye single.

“At some point, they’ve got to hit it at somebody, right?” said manager Mike Shildt.

Finally, after facing 10 Marlins hitters, Kolek escaped the first. And the comeback was on. Immediately.

“In that dugout, when we went down six runs in the first inning, all of us knew that we were going to come back one way or the other,” said Fernando Tatis Jr. “We were just going to find a way.”

Tatis started it himself. He poked an opposite-field home run into the Petco Porch, his fourth leadoff home run of the season. At 339 feet, it was the second shortest of the 72 that he has hit at Petco Park. But it did the trick.

“They scored six,” Luis Arraez said. “But we can do that, too. As soon as Tati hit the homer, it was like a sign for us.”

Added Tatis: “That’s how it starts -- a step at a time.”

From there, San Diego found a bit of its own good fortune. Marlins second baseman Ronny Simon committed three errors, plus another misplay that was initially ruled an error but changed to a hit.

The Padres capitalized. As they usually do. They scored two apiece in the second and third, then once apiece in the fourth and fifth. Arraez and Xander Bogaerts pounded out three hits, and Jackson Merrill provided some insurance with a solo home run in the eighth inning.

“We didn’t give anything away, and they gave stuff away,” Merrill said. “You’ve got to take advantage.”

All the while, Kolek put up zeros. The bullpen did the same. With the Padres down a few arms in their ‘pen, they called upon Yuki Matsui and Sean Reynolds for high-leverage setup roles before Jeremiah Estrada nailed down the second save of his career.

“That’s why it was such a good team win, for me,” Shildt said. “Everything you do on a baseball field to help you win a game -- all the little things added up to a big thing.”

That big thing being a fourth Padres victory in five games -- quite the response to their six-game losing streak. And while Kolek deflected credit, his teammates were quick to heap it on him.

“Six runs in the first is tough,” Merrill said. “You could immediately put your head down, eat it, wear it, be like, ‘Ah, I didn’t do so good.’ But he went out there, put [himself] on the line. He dominated the rest of the game. So we appreciate him doing what he could, getting us to that position.”

Already this season, Kolek broke into the record books with his shutout at Coors Field in a 21-0 victory -- matching the largest shutout win for a pitcher since 1901. His path to a victory on Tuesday was more indirect.

“Definitely feels a lot better than a loss,” Kolek said. “It’s great to get the win. But I’m undeserving.”

His teammates would argue otherwise.