Rockies Join 30-30-30-30 Club, but Lose : Baseball: Caminiti steals spotlight with two homers, eight RBIs in Padres’ 15-4 rout. Galarraga gets No. 30.

The Colorado Rockies joined the Dodgers in the major league record book Tuesday night, but were upstaged by Ken Caminiti.

The San Diego Padre third baseman tied Nate Colbert’s 1972 club record by driving in eight runs as his team exposed the fragility of Colorado’s pitching while hammering out a 15-4 victory.

Only the calendar changed as the Rockies remained 1 1/2 games ahead of the Dodgers, who lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-2.

San Diego slammed 18 hits off eight Colorado pitchers, with Caminiti delivering a three-run homer, a bases-loaded double, a solo homer and an RBI single.

It was the third time this season that the switch-hitting Caminiti, who now has 24 homers and 87 runs batted in, had homered from both sides of the plate in the same game, marking the first time in major league history that a player has done it more than twice in a season.

Caminiti is on a roll. On Saturday and Sunday he became the first player in National League history to homer from both sides of the plate in consecutive games. The Hall of Fame asked for his bat after that accomplishment and will be wanting more now.

“I still say I’m not a cleanup hitter, not a home run hitter, but I’m in a groove and things are happening for me,” Caminiti said.

If there was solace for the Rockies beyond the Dodgers’ loss, it was that they shared in the historic festivities.

A two-run homer by Andres Galarraga in the fifth inning was his 30th of the season. The Rockies now have four players with 30 or more, the others being Dante Bichette (37), Larry Walker (32) and Vinny Castilla (31). The only other team to reach that plateau was the 1977 Dodgers, featuring Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), Ron Cey (30) and Dusty Baker (30).

“I’m happy to get the 30th,” Galarraga said. “It takes a lot of pressure off at the plate. I had been going up there thinking about it.”

Given the high-altitude boost of Coors Field, the Colorado foursome has hit more home runs than eight National League teams, but this was a night when the Rockies’ nine hits paled next to the San Diego bombardment.

It was also a night when the Rockies reached a milestone of another type. A relief appearance by Mike Munoz in the eighth inning was his 60th of the season. The Rockies now have four relievers at 60 or more, illustrating the inconsistency of an oft-injured rotation. The Colorado bullpen leads the league in saves and has been an unsung factor in the team’s success, but things only got worse after starter Armando Reynoso left in the fifth inning of this one.

Caminiti homered left-handed off Reynoso in the second inning and right-handed off Bryan Hickerson in the seventh. Former Dodger Jody Reed collected two doubles and a pair of singles during the San Diego onslaught, and Tony Gwynn had three hits to raise his average to .366 and virtually ensure another batting title on the night that his closest pursuer, Mike Piazza, was injured in Los Angeles.

Can the Rockies, blown out by the Florida Marlins, 17-0, on Sunday, pick up the pieces? It might not be easy.

Bill Swift, headed for postseason shoulder surgery, will try to go five innings tonight in his third start since coming off the disabled list for the second time this season.

Former Angel Joe Grahe, also recently off the DL, will start Thursday night in San Francisco, replacing Bret Saberhagen, resting his inflamed shoulder in hopes of starting against the Dodgers on Tuesday.

Grahe will be the eighth starter in a nine-day span for a team that has only one complete game and had allowed opposing batters to hit a league high .285 even before Caminiti engineered San Diego’s demolition derby of Tuesday night.