Padres beat Diamondbacks, spoil Bauer’s home debut
PHOENIX — Chase Headley doubled in three runs and the San Diego Padres roughed up Arizona rookie Trevor Bauer in his home debut 9-5 on Tuesday night, winning their fourth straight and sending the Diamondbacks to their fourth loss in a row.
Padres starter Andrew Cashner left the game after two innings with a strained muscle in his right side. Leading 2-0 at the time, the Padres scored five in the fourth to break the game open.
Ross Ohlendorf (2-0) went 2 1-3 innings to get the victory. Arizona’s Jason Kubel hit his eighth career grand slam.
Yonder Alonso hit a two-run homer for San Diego.
Bauer (0-1), the third pick overall in last year’s draft, allowed six earned runs and six hits in 3 1-3 innings.
Bauer walked four and struck out six.
Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt matched his career best with four hits, all singles, including one for an RBI with two outs in the ninth.
Ohlendorf was responsible for three runs in 2 1-3 innings after leaving the game with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth. His replacement Nick Vincent struck out Justin Upton, but Kubel homered into the right-field seats to slice the lead in half at 8-4. It was Kubel’s first slam since July 25, 2009, for Minnesota at Baltimore.
Cashner, making his third start of the season and fourth of his career, hit 101 mph on the Chase Field radar gun but left after taking the mound but not throwing a pitch in the third inning. He threw just 28 pitches.
Bauer, the quirky former UCLA star with an unorthodox 90-minute warm-up that features soaring tosses from near the right-field line to the left-field line, struck out the first three batters he faced.
But Bauer fell behind in the second after Yasmani Grandal’s one-out single and Alonso’s first-pitch shot over the right field fence. He contributed to his own demise with an error in the fourth.
One-out singles by Cameron Maybin and Everth Cabrera put runners on first and third, then Ohlendorf put down a suicide squeeze bunt that went right to Bauer. The youngster, eying a throw home, bobbled the ball and everyone was safe. Will Venable singled to load the bases and an RBI single by Alexi Amarista made it 4-0. Headley cleared the bases with a double to deep center and the blowout was on at 7-0.
Bauer made his major league debut last Thursday at Atlanta, allowing two runs on five hits in four innings, getting no decision in a 3-2 Diamondbacks victory.
Kubel’s throwing error in the fifth brought in the Padres’ eighth run, then Guzman’s pinch-hit home run in the eighth made it 9-4.
The Padres, winners of the first two games of the series, go for their second three-game sweep of the season on Wednesday night. Arizona had won 10 of 11 at home before opening this seven-game home stand with two losses to the NL West’s last-place team.
NOTES: 2B Aaron Hill doubled and singled to extend his home hitting streak to 18 games, matching the fourth-longest in Arizona history. ... The Fourth of July night contest, featuring postgame fireworks, is the Diamondbacks’ first sellout since the season opener. ... San Diego has won three of its last four series and split the other one, although the competition has been Seattle, Houston, Colorado and Arizona, none of which has a winning record. ... Arizona LHP Joe Saunders threw 51 pitches on Tuesday. He’s been on the 15-day DL since June 23 with a strained left shoulder. ... The Padres send Jason Marquis (1-4, 3.06 ERA) to the mound on Wednesday night, while Arizona looks to stem its skid with Ian Kennedy (6-7, 4.20). ... The Diamondbacks set a franchise record for a single season by homering in 14 straight games. ... Kubel, signed in the offseason as a free agent, has 55 RBIs.