Kennedy cools off White Sox as Padres win 4-1
Ian Kennedy struck out nine in six strong innings and Yonder Alonso hit a two-run homer to lead the San Diego Padres past the White Sox 4-1 on Friday night.
Cameron Maybin hit his first home run of the season and Alonso finished with three hits as the Padres ended Chicago's three-game winning streak.
Kennedy (4-6) allowed one run and four hits with three walks. The lone run was set up by Maybin's mental lapse in the fourth inning.
Padres closer Huston Street pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save in 16 opportunities. Nick Vincent and Joaquin Benoit backed up Kennedy with a scoreless inning apiece.
Kennedy has struggled to get help from San Diego's offense. Before the game, he ranked 98th out of 101 qualified pitchers with 2.79 runs of support per nine innings. He struck out the side in the fifth and Conor Gillaspie leading off the sixth.
White Sox starter John Danks (3-5) followed an impressive outing against the Yankees with seven effective innings against the Padres. Danks allowed two runs and scattered eight hits. He struck out four and walked one.
Danks pitched eight shutout innings last Saturday but ended up with a no-decision in Chicago's loss to the Yankees.
Maybin led off the third with a home run on a 2-0 pitch from Danks. It was Maybin's first home run since June 9, 2013, at Colorado.
Danks got help from second baseman Gordon Beckham. Everth Cabrera put down what appeared to be a perfectly placed bunt, but Beckham dove at the ball in the infield grass and swiped the ball with his glove to Adam Dunn at first for the out.
With one out and Gillaspie on second in the fourth, Alexei Ramirez hit a routine fly to Maybin in center field. Maybin thought it was the third out of the inning. He put his head down and started jogging in. Gillaspie noticed that Maybin was unaware of how many outs there were and tagged up to third without a throw. One pitch later, Gillaspie scored on Kennedy's wild pitch to tie it at 1.
Rene Rivera led off the fifth with a double to the warning track in center and later scored on Danks' wild pitch to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Alonso added insurance runs in the eighth with a two-run drive off reliever Javy Guerra. It was Alonso's fourth homer of the season.