Kolek tosses shutout in 2nd career start. Oh, Padres offense scores 21 runs against Rockies

What's more impressive: throwing a shutout at Coors Field or scoring 21 runs in a big league baseball game?

There's really no wrong answer so I suppose the answer is behind Door #3: doing both in the same night. That's what the Padres did in a 21-0 demolition in Denver.

Let's start with Stephen Kolek. In his first MLB start against Pittsburgh he threw 5.2 innings of shutout ball, an impressive outing by any measure. It's safe to say nobody saw this kind of encore coming. Kolek tossed a shutout, allowing five hits and striking out seven, needing 104 pitches to do it. Kolek was a Rule 5 addition a year ago and spent the season in the bullpen. Over the winter the Padres decided to turn him back into a starter.

During Spring Training, Kolek narrowly lost out on the final spot in the rotation to Kyle Hart but the club told him to go to Triple-A El Paso and keep stretching out as a starter. He's now taking full advantage of his opportunity.

Of course, it's a lot easier to pitch with a lead, and he had a big one before even stepping onto the rubber. Jackson Merrill got the scoring started with the first of his four hits, an RBI single to score Fernando Tatis Jr. and make it 1-0.

Three batters later Gavin Sheets launched a Bradley Blalock fastball 439 feet into the 2nd deck in right field at Coors Field, a 3-run shot to cap a five-run 1st inning. Luis Arraez (three hits) added on with an RBI single in the 2nd inning. Jake Cronenworth (two hits) demolished a solo homer 435 feet in the 3rd inning to make it 7-0. The Friars more than doubled that in the 4th inning alone.

San Diego scored eight times in the frame, highlighted by a 3-run bomb by Jason Heyward, to take a 15-0 lead. They padded it further in the 5th inning when Xander Bogaerts (two hits) smoked a solo homer and Tatis Jr. (two hits) unloaded on a 3-run shot to make it 19-0. All in all 11 different players got a hit for the Friars, who can finish their second straight sweep of the Rockies on Sunday afternoon with Nick Pivetta on the mound against German Marquez.