• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Young pitches Padres over Pirates

May 31, 2007 - 3:44 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Chris Young came back to haunt his former employer again.

Young, a third-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2000 who never played for the club, tossed seven scoreless innings and had an RBI single to help his San Diego Padres to a 9-0 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday in the second of a three-game set.

Khalil Greene had a grand slam and scored twice for the Padres, who blew the game open with seven runs in the final two innings.

Young (6-3), traded by Pittsburgh in December 2002 to the Texas Rangers, gave up four hits and one walk while striking out seven to improve his career record against Pittsburgh to 3-0.

"I'm past that; I've been traded three times now," Young said. "I'm just trying to help my team win, it doesn't matter to me who I'm facing, my job is to go out and give the team a chance to win and make good pitches and keep us in the game."

In three career starts against the Pirates, Young has allowed just two earned runs in 23 2/3 innings pitched. In those three starts, he has given up just seven hits while holding the Pirates to a .093 average.

The 6-10 righthander got into one jam in the sixth, when he surrendered a one-out single to his counterpart, Paul Maholm, and then a double to Jose Bautista. But Young got Chris Duffy to foul out and Freddy Sanchez to fly out to center to end the threat.

"For the most part, I was able to execute my pitches pretty well," Young said. "I had decent fastball command and for me that's my bread and butter. On nights when I'm able to put my fastball where I want, I'll take my chances."

"Chris threw the ball very well again," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "I think he's on a nice roll. His mechanics, his confidence and his stuff is all coming together and I think we're seeing the results of that in his performance. He's throwing the ball great."

The Padres opened the scoring in the third, when Greene and Paul McAnulty led off the inning with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt by Young advanced both runners, Marcus Giles grounded out to shortstop, scoring Greene to put the Padres ahead, 1-0.

In the fifth, rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a single, Greene followed with a walk. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch by Maholm. After McAnulty struck out, Young knocked a single to center field, scoring Greene to make it 2-0. It was just Young's second hit of the season in 17 at-bats.

"It was luck; it hit my bat," Young said, laughing. "Sometimes it finds a hole. It's just a situation where you're trying to put the ball in play, trying to hit it hard somewhere and it worked out."

The Padres blew it open in the eighth when Giles led off with a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Jose Cruz, Jr., and was singled home two batters later by Mike Cameron. After Cameron's single, Maholm was relieved by Jonah Bayliss.

Bayliss intentionally walked Josh Bard, walked Kouzmanoff and then gave up a grand slam to Greene, the second of his career. Damaso Marte relieved Bayliss and retired the side.

Greene had been hitless in his previous five games entering Wednesday hit previous hit coming May 20 but he had two hits against the Pirates.

"It's definitely frustrating at times and it's always nice to do anything when you really feel like you're struggling," Greene said. "To be able to drive in some runs and to be able to contribute in that way is nice."

Maholm (2-7) went 7 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and four earned runs while striking out five.

"Of course I'm pleased with how I threw, but in losing there's no consolation in saying, 'Hey I threw a good game but we lost,'" Maholm said. "It's tough, but there's a lot of season left. As long as I can get rolling on a decent amount of starts and everyone else gets rolling like they have been, then we're going to go on a nice little streak."

Cameron reached base four times and drove in three for San Diego, which scored its most runs since plating 10 on April 24.

"(Before tonight) we hadn't had the most quality at-bats with runners in scoring position," Cameron said. "We swing at pitchers' pitches and put ourselves in a bad position. But tonight, collectively, we were pretty good. Everybody was up there giving their best and making their guy throw a pitch that they can put a good swing on."