• Recap
• Bleachers

Padres five-run ninth powers Padres in sweep over Dodgers

Jun 8, 2007 - 7:48 AM SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- When a team is as hot as the San Diego Padres, sometimes even the unreal becomes possible.

Russell Branyan drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning to cap a five-run rally to complete a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, 6-5.

The Padres, who trailed 5-1 in the ninth, appeared to have their bats silenced for the contest and their four-game winning streak stopped as Dodger starter Hong Chih-Kuo outdueled San Diego ace Jake Peavy. However, Jonathan Broxton (2-2) - filling in for injured closer Takashi Saito - took the mound and promptly allowed Geoff Blum's single to lead off the frame.

Blum advanced to second when first baseman Nomar Garciaparra rushed the exchange from his glove to his hand that allowed Terrmel Sledge to reach.

"There was no thought to go to anyone else," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "(Broxton) was throwing the ball well there to start out the inning. A couple of freaky things happened to start out the inning and you could see the handwriting on the wall. You better watch out when things like that start happening."

Marcus Giles lined a single to left to load the bases and the Padres plated their second run when rookie pinch hitter Paul McAnulty hit a high chopper and was able to beat Garciaparra to first base, after the first baseman had initially looked towards second with a double-play in mind.

"When I hit it, I just put my head down and tried running as hard as I could, and I just happened to beat out the play," McAnulty said. "I tried to keep the inning alive, you know, (with the) bases loaded and I was the tying run at the time. With (Adrian Gonzalez) coming up, I was just making sure and trying to get myself across that plate."

With the bases full, Gonzalez then roped a two-run double to deep right-center, scoring Sledge and Giles to narrow the Los Angeles lead to 5-4.

"Once I saw Nomar turn to second on that play, I knew it was going to be a great ninth inning for us," Gonzalez said. Being a first baseman, usually you don't try to go for the double-play (in that situation). You could just tell that the game started to change right there."

The Dodgers elected to intentionally walk Josh Bard to once again load the bases before Mike Cameron singled to center, plating McAnulty, and tying the score at 5-5. Broxton finally recorded the first out of the frame when he struck out rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff.

"You just have to keep battling," Broxton said. "I trusted my stuff out there and tried to throw strikes and get ahead of guys. I made some good pitches and tried to go out and get some quick outs. I just had some bad luck."

The relief was short-lived for the Dodgers, however, as Branyan took a tailing fastball away on a full count to draw the game-winning walk and give the Padres a dramatic comeback win.

"(Broxton) had the adrenaline going, so obviously the ball was going to climb up in the zone a little bit," Branyan said. "It's a tough situation for both sides. I'm trying to get a base hit and trying to stay under control there, and he's trying to do the same thing and pitch in the strike zone. It just worked out for me."

"(Broxton) is a strong young man, and he'll be okay," Little said. "Tomorrow, we'll get Saito back in there in his spot and hopefully he'll be fine and we'll get everybody back where they're supposed to be."

With five hits in the final frame, the Padres had more hits in the inning that they managed through the first eight innings.

"Until the ninth inning, it was a tough night for us," Gonzalez said. "We had some calls go against us and some things went wrong. So, we were kind of frustrated. To be able to come out and Blum started it off and (McAnulty's) hustle, that was just unbelievable. Once you started seeing those things happen, you knew something special was going to happen."

Justin Hampson (2-1) pitched a perfect ninth for the win.

"These are big games, especially against the Dodgers," McAnulty said. "They're the big crosstown rival, and you want to take as many as you can from those guys. In taking this series, we've got some great momentum. I feel that we've got a great team here and it's going to be fun watching us play."

The comeback ruined stellar performances from Rafael Furcal, who had two hits and three RBI, and Kuo, who struck out eight over six frames and was in line for the win before the comeback. The Dodgers, who have dropped three straight, lost for the first time in 30 contests this season in which they held the lead after eight frames.

San Diego became the eighth team this season to score five or more runs in the bottom of the ninth to come back and win a game they trailed in, the most that has happened since 1900.

The Padres rally was cruel payback for the comeback the Dodgers made on their division rival last season, coincidentally in another game started by Peavy. On September 18 at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles hit four straight homers in the ninth to tie the contest at 9-9, before Garciaparra sent a two-run blast over the fence in the 10th to give the Dodgers an 11-10 victory.