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Young shuts down Braves

May 8, 2007 - 4:01 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Chris Young rebounded from two forgettable performances against the Atlanta Braves.

Young hurled six solid innings and Adrian Gonzalez homered and scored twice to power the San Diego Padres to a 4-2 victory over the Braves on Monday.

The 27-year-old Young (4-2) had a solid 2006 campaign for the Padres, winning 11 of his 16 decisions and finishing with a career-best 3.46 ERA. But Young's season would have been even better but for facing the Braves. In two starts last season, the 6-10 Young struggled mightily against Atlanta, allowing 13 earned runs in six innings.

"Last year is last year," Young said. "It doesn't matter. Last year, they caught me on some bad days. I know I had to make good pitches tonight and fortunately, I did so and we won the game."

But the righthander was much better in this one. Young carried a 3-0 lead into the fifth before Atlanta rallied.

He started the frame by walking Brian McCann and hitting Jeff Francoeur, and both advanced on a balk. Scott Thorman plated McCann with a groundout and Francoeur scored on a triple by Chris Woodward.

But Young settled down, striking out pinch hitter Pete Orr and inducing Kelly Johnson to flyout to left field to end the threat.

"With the pinch hitter (Orr), with a runner on third base, I was trying to get a ground ball or popup and ended up with a strikeout," Young said. "I was trying to make a good pitch to Kelly Johnson and was able to get out of the jam."

Young allowed two runs and two hits, walked two and tied a season high by striking out eight batters in a 104-pitch performance to lead the Padres to their third consecutive victory.

"He pitched pretty well tonight," said Woodward, who had both hits against Young. "The two hits I got weren't hit very hard."

Heath Bell hurled a perfect seventh, Scott Linebrink worked around a two-out single in the eighth and Trevor Hoffman worked a perfect ninth to record his ninth save of the season and 491st of his major league career.

"With our bullpen,you can turn over the lead to them, I'll take my chances." Young said.

San Diego took a 1-0 lead in the first when Gonzalez smashed his ninth homer of the season off Atlanta starter Chuck James (3-3).

"We looked at video and saw he liked to throw fastballs away," Gonzalez said. "He was behind in the count and I was kind of looking for it and he threw it in the right spot."

The 24 year old San Diego-native also helped his club in the fourth. He was issued a free pass to start the frame, advanced to second on a single by Josh Bard and third on Mike Cameron's single. Rookie Kevin Kouzmanof followed with a sacrifice fly to right, plating Gonzalez for a 2-0 lead.

James followed by walking Young, ending his evening. Oscar Villareal relieved James and induced Marcus Giles to hit into a fielder's choice to end the threat.

"When you got a guy who's eight feet tall and you can't throw a strike to him," James said of the lanky Young. "You know it's not a good day."

It was the shortest outing of the season for James, who lasted at least five innings in each of his first six starts this season. James threw 94 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, walking four and striking out three.

"I've definitely been throwing way too many pitches," James said. "I threw almost 100 pitches in almost three innings. I've got to do better than that and I've got to produce. I've got to work on throwing more strikes."

The Padres expanded the advantage to 3-0 thanks to a defensive miscue by Woodward, who was playing shortstop in place of Edgar Renteria, out with the flu.

Brian Giles led off the frame with a single and advanced to second one out later on a walk to Gonzalez. Bard hit a routine grounder to Braves first baseman Thorman, who retired Gonzalez at second, but Woodward's throw to complete an unlikely double play was wild, allowing Brian Giles to score.

"I probably shouldn't have thrown it," Woodward said. "It was kind of a tough play. I don't think we would have had him anyway. I basically gave them a run. They ended up winning by two, but it's a different ballgame if I didn't give up that run."

San Diego added an insurance run in the sixth, when Jose Cruz, Jr. drew a bases-loaded walk from reliever Chad Paronto.

Johnson was hitless in four at-bats to snap an 11-game hitting streak.