LaRoche homers twice as Braves win wild one

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres might

need another break to recover from this one.

Adam LaRoche homered twice and drove in five runs, including two

on an 11th-inning double, to help the Braves to a wild 15-12 win

over the Padres on Friday night in the highest-scoring game in

Petco Park's three-year history.

"How many times did it go back and forth?" LaRoche asked after

the teams' first game back from the All-Star break. "Golly. That's

not what we really had in mind to open up the second half, but it's

a win and we'll take it, because God knows we need as many as we

can get right now."

Atlanta, which has won 14 straight division titles, moved into

second place in the NL East, percentage points ahead of

Philadelphia but still 13 games behind the New York Mets.

The NL West-leading Padres had rallied four times to tie the

game, including in the ninth, a half-inning after Trevor Hoffman

blew a save for just the second time in 26 chances by allowing

Andruw Jones' two-run double.

It looked like LaRoche's leadoff homer in the 10th off Brian

Sikorski -- his second of the game and 15th this season -- would give

the Braves a lead that would hold up. But Brian Giles walked

leading off the Padres' 10th, took third on pinch-hitter Rob

Bowen's single and scored on a double play.

The Braves scored three in the 11th off Clay Hensley (5-7),

who's scheduled to start Tuesday against Philadelphia. Andruw Jones

scored on Jeff Francoeur's grounder before LaRoche added a two-run

double down the left-field line, his fourth hit of the night. The

five RBI tied his career high.

"I've never been involved in one like that," said Bobby Cox,

who managed in his 3,787th major league game in 25 seasons. "All

kinds of hitting, some good pitching, some not too good. I don't

know what else to say about a game like that.

"Our bullpen has really been going good, and their bullpen is

really good, and you would never imagine something like that," Cox

said. "Both starters gone after a couple of innings. There's no

way to explain this type of game. I'm not even jumping up and down

by winning it."

Neither starter made it out of the fourth inning as the teams

combined for eight homers, which tied the Petco Park record, and 36

hits, a ballpark record. The Padres had seven of the night's 11

doubles.

San Diego, which had its five-game winning streak snapped, tied

a club record for an extra-inning game by using nine pitchers. The

Braves used eight pitchers, tying a franchise record.

Chipper Jones hit two homers for the Braves, who won for the

seventh time in nine games, and Andruw Jones connected once. Jorge

Sosa (3-10) got the win after blowing the save, allowing three runs

in two innings. He gave up leads of 11-9 and 12-11. Tyler Yates

pitched the 11th for his first career save.

With the Padres leading 9-8, Hoffman was one strike away from

his 25th save when Jones hit a 3-2 pitch into the left-field corner

to score Marcus Giles and Edgar Renteria. Hoffman allowed a run for

the first time in 13 appearances.

"His best pitch is a changeup so I was just looking for a

changeup, and he left it down over the plate and I managed to have

a good swing at it," Jones said.

"You don't want to get beat with something other than what

you're comfortable throwing," Hoffman said. "He wasn't giving in,

either."

Hoffman also was one strike away from earning the save in the

All-Star game Tuesday night when Michael Young hit a two-run triple

to lift the AL to a 3-2 win.

Hoffman allowed three runs, two hits and a walk. He gave up

Giles' single and Renteria's walk with one out before getting

Chipper Jones to pop up to short.

Brian McCann added an RBI single off Sikorski to make it 11-9.

San Diego tied it in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI single by

rookie Josh Barfield and a run-scoring double by Josh Bard. Bard's

hit glanced off first baseman LaRoche's glove and rolled into the

Braves' bullpen in right field.

San Diego tied the game at 8 on Mike Piazza's three-run homer in

the sixth, and went ahead 9-8 on Barfield's double in the seventh.

Atlanta starter Tim Hudson couldn't hold a 5-1 lead in the third

and the Braves' shaky bullpen lost an 8-5 lead. Hudson was hit on

the right bicep by Mark Bellhorn's comebacker for an infield single

in the second and was gone after three.

The Padres twice got a three-run homer to tie the game. Adrian

Gonzalez hit one off Hudson in the third to tie it at 5, his second

homer of the game and 15th of the season. He set a career high with

four RBI, and Piazza also drove in four runs.

Piazza's 13th homer came with pinch-hitter Geoff Blum aboard on

a leadoff double and Brian Giles on after a two-out walk.

"It's tough to lose like that after coming back so many

times," Piazza said. "But this team is tough and will bounce

back."

San Diego starter Chris Young, who came in with a 3.12 ERA,

allowed a season-high seven runs and seven hits, struck out two and

walked one.

Hudson gave up five runs on nine hits. He struck out one and

walked none.Game notes
Chipper Jones had an extra-base hit for the 12th straight

game, the longest streak since Rogers Hornsby did the same in 1928

for the Boston Braves. ... Padres reliever Doug Brocail retired all

three batters he faced in the 10th in his first action this season.

He had been sidelined after undergoing two heart angioplasties in

the spring.