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Phillies take down Padres, Papelbon reaches milestone

Jun 11, 2014 - 5:01 AM Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Marlon Byrd slugged a three-run homer and drove in four, backing A.J. Burnett's solid outing, as Philadelphia posted a 5-2 victory over San Diego in Tuesday's opener of a three-game series.

Chase Utley singled twice and scored a pair of runs, with Ryan Howard adding two hits and a run scored for the Phillies, who won for just the second time in their last 10.

Burnett (4-5) allowed just three hits and two runs over 7 1/3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon made a mess of things in the ninth, but hung on to earn his 14th save of the season and 300th of his career.

"It's good to get home," Burnett said. "To come out like we did, I always harp on setting the tone, and it feels good to be able to do that. It's a good start to the series."

Will Venable homered and Yonder Alonso knocked in the other run for the Padres, who have dropped six of their last eight.

Ian Kennedy (5-7) gave up all five runs on seven hits and struck out three in seven frames.

Papelbon did all he could to throw a monkey wrench into his club's relatively placid game. Seth Smith doubled to lead off and moved to third on a groundout ahead of Chase Headley's infield single and a Rene Rivera plunking with two away to load the bases. Tommy Medica, though, grounded into a force at second to end the contest.

"We have an opportunity to climb out of a hole in this homestand and hopefully a lot of the guys in the clubhouse can recognize that and hopefully we can take advantage of that in our own ballpark," Papelbon said.

Venable's two-out blast to right in the third put the Padres on the board, but the Phils responded in the home fourth to take the lead for good.

Ben Revere doubled off the wall in right, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on an Utley single, then Howard singled and Byrd reached the seats in right center to make it 4-1.

Utley and Howard hit one-out singles and Byrd's fly to center brought in Utley with two away in the home sixth for a four-run bulge.

Carlos Quentin began the seventh with a double, moved up on a groundout and scored on Alonso's fly to center. Burnett took a seat with one away in the eighth, after fanning Peterson and walking Cameron Maybin. Jake Diekman finished off the inning by striking out pinch-hitter Chris Denorfia and Everth Cabrera.

It's something that's just hard to put into words," Venable said of his team, which has scored just six runs in their last four games and was shut out twice. "I feel like we're right there. I don't really know what else to say about it, other than we feel like we put ourselves in a good position as far as approach."

Game Notes

Byrd tied a season high for runs batted in during one game, following a four- RBI performance at Los Angeles on April 24 ... Prior to the contest, the Phillies announced the signing of first-round pick, pitcher Aaron Nola ... Papelbon tied Trevor Hoffman for second fastest to 300 saves (552 games) only Mariano Rivera was quicker to the mark, at 537 games ... While the contest was not officially delayed by rain, several Padres players slid on the tarp covering the field following a downpour roughly an hour before first pitch.