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Rockies blank Padres

Jun 7, 2011 - 7:04 AM San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Clayton Mortensen and five Rockies relievers combined to shut down the Padres, 3-0, in the opener of a three-game series between the National League West rivals.

Mortensen (1-4) gave up five hits and two walks in six scoreless innings for the Rockies, who won despite not scoring more than three runs for the eighth straight game. They have gone 3-5 in that span.

"I thought Clayton Mortensen did a terrific job. I think that goes without saying, throwing six scoreless innings. Actually he got better as he went along. The location of his pitches improved as he got into the game," said Rockies manager Jim Tracy.

Troy Tulowitzki, Seth Smith and Chris Iannetta each drove in a run for the victors.

Clayton Richard (2-7) struck out eight over seven innings for the Padres, who had won three in a row coming in.

Richard gave up five hits and one run, which came in the first inning when Tulowitzki's two-out comebacker hit off his foot and allowed Chris Nelson to score. Nelson reached earlier with a one-out triple.

The Padres' offense went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, with most of those chances coming early on.

Ryan Ludwick and Brad Hawpe struck out to strand two in scoring position in the bottom of the first, and Carlos Gonzalez threw out Jorge Cantu at third trying to tag up on Kyle Phillips' deep fly to center in the fourth.

San Diego loaded the bases in the eighth, but Matt Reynolds struck out Alberto Gonzalez to end the threat.

"We had some baserunners, but we just couldn't break through. We had a couple opportunities for some two-out knocks. We just couldn't get them tonight," said Padres manager Bud Black.

Smith helped tack on two insurance runs in the ninth, tripling home Ty Wigginton and coming in on Iannetta's base hit to center.

Huston Street hurled a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his 16th save of the year.

Game Notes

Rex Brothers, Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt and Matt Reynolds combined to blank the Padres in the seventh and eighth innings...Colorado has posted four shutouts, while San Diego has been shut out 10 times this year.