Jon Lester had another strong outing and his teammates powered their way to another win. He pitched a solid six innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. The knuckleballer struck out two and allowed a home run in winning for the second time in his past seven starts.
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After the 3-4 homestand, the Padres leave for a nine game road trip. He was on the cusp of a very respectable outing against a really good offense. Evan Longoria stopped the streak with a two-run homer off Matt Barnes in the ninth. I feel like he makes the right moves in the right situations. “That’s all I worry about”.
“I’m just going to keep trying to convince them to keep letting me throw as long as I can”, Friedrich said.
Bryant drove in the Cubs’ first two runs with his 33rd homer and a sacrifice fly.
Clemens, who departed the game after Russell’s at-bat, allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits and no walks with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.
Rodon received ample offensive support as Chicago scored once in the first inning and added three runs apiece in the third and fifth, then two more in the sixth.
Hendricks struck out the side in the fourth after a leadoff walk, sat down the side in order in the fifth and gave way to his bullpen after striking out the final two batters in the sixth.
“It just wasn’t a great job by me”, Jackson said. Ross was the Padres’ opening day starter and hasn’t pitched since.
Lester was lifted at 100 pitches after Alex Dickerson and Christian Bethancourt opened the seventh with singles. But Clemens allowed more runs (five, four earned) than he had in any of his previous five starts, again struggled with his curve early and buried the Padres in an early hole when he allowed three straight extra-base hits to open Wednesday’s start.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Jake Arrieta might be starting a late-season push for an NL Cy Young Award. But Lester struck out Travis Jankowski looking and, after a walk to Alexei Ramirez, struck out Wil Myers with a devastating curveball.
Chicago pulled away with a three-run fifth, which featured two home runs. Bryant led off with arching shot into the left-center field seats.
Welington Castillo hit a two-out bases-loaded double during a four-run seventh that put Arizona ahead 8-7 after it trailed 5-0 in the second. The first baseman hit a well-struck ball down the first base line, only to see a perfectly shifted Luis Sardinas scoop it up to turn the inning-ending double play (-0.48). “That kind of put a damper on things”. Rizzo singled in between walks to Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist. That set up Russell’s sacrifice fly for his second RBI in two innings. You fall behind in the count against this team and you are in trouble.
“That was a frightful pitch to Russell”, Jackson said. He outdueled Derek Holland (5-6), who gave up one run on four hits in six innings.
CINCINNATI – Adrian Gonzalez hit three of the Dodgers’ seven homers – driving in a career-high eight runs – and rookie Corey Seager had a noteworthy homer as well.
“That is a hard lineup to navigate”, Padres manager Andy Green said.
Padres: OF Jabari Blash was placed on the disabled list with a sprained left finger.
“I’m mixing everything from the get-go”, Arrieta said after the 5-3 win.
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NOTES: The Cubs are paying roughly $12 1/2 million of Padres RHP Edwin Jackson’s $13 salary. He was effective on Wednesday against Tampa Bay, working 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball.
