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Oswalt returns to form, Phillies shut down Padres

Apr 22, 2011 - 7:44 AM San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Ben Francisco and Brian Schneider homered to back six shutout innings from Roy Oswalt and help the Phillies to a 3-0 victory over the Padres in the opener of a four-game series.

Oswalt (3-0) had left his last outing, Friday against Florida, after six innings because of back spasms. But he was in form Thursday, allowing only one hit, walking two and striking out seven.

Francisco finished with two RBI for Philadelphia, which was coming off a series loss against Milwaukee.

Mat Latos (0-3) struggled in 4 1/3 innings as San Diego lost for the third time in four games. He allowed three runs and four hits, walked five and struck out seven. Of his 107 pitches, only 59 were strikes.

"It just looked like he was out of sync," Padres manager Bud Black said of Latos. "He had some good at-bats against certain guys."

The Phillies got on the board in the second thanks to the two homers.

Francisco led off the inning by slugging an 0-2 slider over the center field fence, and two batters later, Schneider pulled a 3-1 fastball to right center for a 2-0 lead.

"We made him (Latos) work," Francisco said. "He made mistakes and we were able to hit him."

In the third, Philadelphia had the bases loaded with one away -- Placido Polanco led off with a single before Latos walked Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez.

Francisco got Polanco home with a fly ball that bounced off the tip of right fielder Chris Denorfia's glove. However, Latos retired the next two batters to prevent further damage.

The Padres never got a rally started against Oswalt, but had a good scoring chance in the seventh, when David Herndon took the mound for Philadelphia.

After retiring the first two batters, Herndon gave up a single to Nick Hundley and walked Cameron Maybin. Antonio Bastardo then came in from the bullpen and walked pinch-hitter Will Venable to load the bases, but got Alberto Gonzalez, also pinch-hitting, to fly out to right.

Bastardo threw a scoreless eighth inning and Jose Contreras entered for the ninth. The Phillies closer got into some trouble, allowing a two-out double to Maybin before walking Venable. However, he got pinch-hitter Brad Hawpe looking at a third strike to end the game.

Game Notes

Contreras picked up his fifth save...The Phillies have won eight in a row at Petco Park...Polanco went 2-for-4, and was the game's only hitter to finish with multiple hits...The teams combined to go 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and leave 21 men on base.