Padres win a wild one in 11

Monday September 21, 2009

The Padres overcame the first runs given up by Gregerson in more than a month and the 3rd blown save by Heath Bell in his last 7 appearances to take an 11-6 win over the Pirates in 11 innings tonight at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

And it all came down to an improbable five run top of the 11th for the Padres. The Padres had scored more than 1 run in a bonus inning just once all season, despite playing in 16 extra inning games.

The Padres broke loose against Jeff Karstens and Denny Bautista for 5 runs on 4 hits, 2 intentional walks and a sac fly. The Padres attack in the 11th was paced by doubles from Chase Headley and Oscar Salazar.

Karstens took the loss for the Pirates.

Headley had a career high 5 hits in 6 at bats and drove in 2 runs, Tony Gwynn went 3 for 5 including an RBI single in the 11th, Salazar and Nick Hundley both drove in 3 and every Padres position player had at least one hit.

Adrian Gonzalez hit his 39th home run of the season. He is just one from having the only non Steroid enhanced 40 home run season in Padres history. Vaughn(50), Caminiti(40), and Nevin(41) are the only Padres to have hit 40 or more home runs.

Wade LeBlanc had his 4th straight good outing since being recalled giving up just 1 run in 5 innings on 5 hits and 3 walks, but did not factor in the decision.