AP – San Diego Padres' Chase Headley, right, scores on a single by Cameron Maybin as Los Angeles Dodgers catcher … LOS ANGELES – Will Venable scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by reliever Matt Guerrier with two outs in the eighth inning, and the San Diego Padres got two other runs on dropped throws at home plate to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 Saturday night.
Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 26 games, a record for the month of April. He had two singles for the Dodgers.
Heath Bell got three outs for his sixth save. He has converted 40 straight chances, one shy of Trevor Hoffman's franchise record.
Padres right-hander Tim Stauffer took a three-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the seventh. He was lifted after giving up a two-out double by Rod Barajas and hitting Jamey Carroll with a pitch. Tony Gwynn Jr. pinch-hit for Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda and greeted Luke Gregerson (1-1) with a tying single.
The Padres responded with three runs in the eighth. They loaded the bases with one out against Guerrier (2-2) on a pair of singles, a sacrifice and an intentional walk to Chase Headley. Nick Hundley popped up, but Guerrier's second pitch to Orlando Hudson was inside and went to the backstop, allowing Venable to score the go-ahead run.
Hudson was then intentionally walked, and Cameron Maybin followed with a two-run single. Rookie left fielder Jerry Sands tried to prevent the second run from scoring on the play and made a perfect throw to the plate, but backup catcher Dioner Navarro dropped the ball for an error.
Ethier's streak is the longest by a Dodgers player since Willie Davis' franchise-record 31-game stretch in 1969. Ethier extended his string with one out in the fourth with an opposite-field single, and scored the game's first run on James Loney's bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
Ethier made a diving grab of a sinking liner by Stauffer in right field and nearly cut down a runner at the plate for what would have been an inning-ending double play in the fifth with no one scoring. But Maybin jarred the ball loose from Barajas after the catcher stuck out his left leg block the runner off.
Venable followed Stauffer's sacrifice fly with a single, Jason Bartlett walked and Ryan Ludwick drove in the go-ahead run with an opposite-field single to right. Ethier threw out Bartlett as he tried to advance two bases on the hit.
San Diego first baseman Brad Hawpe, who came in 7 for 16 lifetime against Kuroda and with an overall .351 lifetime against the Dodgers, was 1 for 4. He has a .149 average with no homers and just two RBIs in 67 at-bats with the Padres after signing a one-year, $3 million contract in January as a free agent.
NOTES: Ethier's two hits gave him 40 for the month, tying the club record for April shared by Mike Piazza (1996) and Rafael Furcal (2008). Ethier also had a hit in the season opener on March 31. ... The Padres scored three runs in an inning for the first time since getting four in the eighth at Houston on April 17.
Recent News
0 comments: on "SPORTS - Ethier makes it 26 straight games with a hit (AP)"
Post a Comment