Hosmer hits first HR; 'I'm officially a Padre now'

DENVER -- The highlights were few on San Diego's side Wednesday, but a new teammate hitting in the heart of the order gave the Padres cause for celebration. Eric Hosmer knocked his first home run as a Padre in the eighth inning, bringing the Padres within two before they dropped the series finale, 6-4, to the Rockies.
Hosmer turned on a 90.7-mph four-seamer from lefty Jake McGee and drove the 1-0 offering 439 feet out to center field, as projected by Statcast™.
"It felt good," Hosmer said. "You always wait to get the first stuff out of the way. It felt good to get that one out of the way. Like Wil [Myers] said, I'm officially a Padre now."
Hosmer hit 25 homers in each of the past two seasons with the Royals before bringing his thump to San Diego as a free agent in the offseason. After going 2-for-4 with his seventh double, a homer, and two runs scored, Hosmer is now batting .333 (17-for-51), with all but one of his starts coming from the three-hole.
"He had some good swings," manager Andy Green said of Hosmer's day. "He crushed a double to left, and he hit the home run. You knew it was coming. I'm sure he would have loved for it to come in Game 1. He would have loved for it to come in a win."

The pair of extra-base hits gave Hosmer a best-in-MLB eight multi-hit games this season, with five of them coming in the past six games, when he hit .417 (10-for-24 with three doubles and a homer). He's now hitting .423 (11-for-24) over the course of his career at Coors Field, with two doubles and two homers.
The homer may have been overshadowed by the third-inning scuffle that erupted when Nolan Arenado charged the mound after Luis Perdomo sailed a pitch behind his back, but both events offered a "rite of passage" for Hosmer and his new teammates.
"It just shows we have each other's backs, that's the main thing," Hosmer said. "You want to fight with your guys, especially coming on the road, to a division opponent. You want to stick together. You want to be 25 guys playing together out there. If anything, it just shows that we were playing together, and we've got each other's backs."
Despite the loss, the Padres won the series in Colorado, finishing a .500 road trip after starting the season 1-6.
"It was good to see our guys battle back," Green said of Hosmer's homer. "We walk away from here, and the mindset we have is we just won a series in a good club's home park."