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Thursday, Apr. 12 5:05pm ET
San Diego survives homers by Kent, Bonds
RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

SAN DIEGO (AP) – The San Diego Padres sure looked different Thursday.

Ryan Klesko
Ryan Klesko gets his camouflage dirty by safely sliding under Bobby Estalella's tag.

They wore camouflage jerseys and green caps to honor the military. And they finally beat the San Francisco Giants.

The Padres won 8-3, their first victory against the Giants after five straight losses this season and seven overall.

"It's nice to beat the Giants," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It looked like we had to disguise ourselves to do it, but we did it."

Adam Eaton survived solo homers by Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. Tony Gwynn's troublesome left knee was quiet enough to allow him to start his third straight game and hit a key RBI double. And the Padres' two young setup men, Tom Davey and Kevin Walker, were impressive.

The Padres were determined not to be swept for the second time in a week by the Giants. Three of the losses had been by one run.

"Before the game, nothing was said, you know, `We've got to beat these guys,' or anything," Eaton said. "But definitely everybody was thinking we need to beat these guys, or it would have been two sweeps in a row."

The Padres had their chances the night before, but lost 2-1 in part because a freak play in which Calvin Murray went from second to third in the ninth inning when a wild pitch by Trevor Hoffman temporarily lodged in catcher Wiki Gonzalez's chest protector. Murray then scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly.

"When you're knocking heads that many times, you've got to get on the board," Gwynn said. "It's nice to get a win just so in our mind you know you can beat them. But for a while there it just seemed like we lost every possible way you can lose to them."

Gwynn drove in a run in the seventh inning with his 535th career double, tying Lou Gehrig for 22nd on the career list. The hit-and-run double, to right-center, scored Mark Kotsay from first. It was his 3,115th career hit.

Playing three straight games – especially a day game after a night game – was a deviation from the Padres' plans for Gwynn, whose 2000 season ended after knee surgery on June 27. The team had planned to play him no more than two straight games early on, but Gwynn said his knee felt fine Thursday.

"I'm still confident," he said. "Just keep giving me opportunities, and you feel like you'll contribute somehow. Today was a nice way because we had the hit-and-run planned for an inning in that situation.

Mike Darr went 3-for-4, scored twice and drove in one run.

Eaton (2-0) had an RBI bunt single during one of the two rallies that gave him the win. He allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings, struck out six and walked one.

Bonds snapped an 0-for-21 slump – the second-longest of his career – with a solo homer with one out in the fourth, the 496th of his career. Bonds' only two homers and two RBI this year have come against the Padres.

Bonds said there is pressure approaching 500 home runs.

"You're in the position to accomplish something special, something you never thought was possible," he said. "It seems like you're out on center stage, all alone.

"Maybe that's why I haven't hit in the playoffs," he said with a laugh. "The spotlight, it's tough."

The first three Padres batters in the fourth scored off Livan Hernandez (1-2). Right fielder Armando Rios misplayed Phil Nevin's fly ball for an error leading off the inning, making that run unearned when Nevin scored on Ben Davis' bases-loaded walk.

Chris Gomez added a sacrifice fly and Eaton an RBI bunt single when first baseman J.T. Snow overran the ball.

San Francisco tied it at 3 in the sixth on Kent's solo homer and Rios' RBI single, both with two out. It was Kent's fourth homer, all coming against the Padres.

San Diego went ahead 5-3 in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Alex Arias, was pinch-hitting for Eaton, and Damian Jackson's RBI single. The Padres added three more in the seventh, including Gwynn's RBI double.

Davey struck out the side in the seventh and walked Bonds in the eighth, the only runner he allowed in 1 2-3 innings. Walker came on with two outs in the eighth and walked Snow, but struck out pinch-hitter J.T. Snow.

The Padres became the last NL team to beat Hernandez, who allowed five runs – four earned – and eight hits in six innings. He had been 3-0 against San Diego in five previous starts.

Game notes
Bonds' longest slump was 0-for-22 in April 1991 while with Pittsburgh. ... Hernandez is 4-11 with a 5.74 ERA in 19 career starts in April. ... San Francisco's No. 5 starter Mark Gardner will make his first start on Saturday at Milwaukee. That allows Russ Ortiz to pitch on his normal four days' rest.

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Padres to get pushed out of home park by Chargers


RECAPS
Seattle 7
Oakland 3

Boston 8
Baltimore 2

Cleveland 5
Detroit 3

Kansas City 0
Toronto 0

Anaheim 13
Texas 3

Colorado 6
St. Louis 4

Milwaukee 12
Houston 4

San Diego 8
San Francisco 3

Cincinnati 11
Pittsburgh 6

NY Mets 1
Atlanta 0

Los Angeles 5
Arizona 4





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