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Bradley, Gonzalez help Maddux to ninth place on wins list

Aug 25, 2007 - 4:21 AM By Larry Dougherty PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - Greg Maddux received plenty of support en route to a pair of impressive accomplishments.

Maddux moved into ninth place on the all-time wins list and Milton Bradley and Adrian Gonzalez both homered twice as the San Diego Padres rolled to a 14-3 victory Friday over the Philadelphia Phillies in a battle between the top two teams in the National League wild card standings.

With the win, San Diego (69-58) moved three games ahead of Philadelphia (66-61) in the wild card standings.

In posting his 343rd career win, Maddux (10-9) passed Tim Keefe for sole possession of ninth place all-time. Roger Clemens of the New York Yankees is eighth with 353 victories.

Maddux (10-9) also became the first pitcher in major league history to reach the 10-win plateau in 20 consecutive seasons, passing the legendary Cy Young. The 41-year-old righthander tossed seven innings, allowing three runs and seven hits while striking out one.

"It's cool, it's nice," Maddux said of the milestones. "But it's also nice to see the guys swing the bats the way they did and nice to see them break through and be happy. They hit tonight."

Bradley put San Diego ahead for good in the fifth with a three-run homer before adding another three-run blast in the ninth for his first multi-homer performance of the season.

Gonzalez, who opened the scoring with a two-run shot in the first inning, launched a mammoth solo homer to deep center during the Padres' six-run fifth that followed a bench-clearing altercation in the bottom of the fourth.

With runners on first and third and none out, Carlos Ruiz barreled into San Diego second baseman Marcus Giles in an effort to break up a double play. Giles immediately confronted Ruiz, who did not attempt to slide, standing toe-to-toe with the Phillies' catcher while both benches cleared.

"It wasn't a slide," said Giles, who left the game after five innings with a right hip pointer. "That's the only thing about it. It was just not a slide. The replay shows it. The only reason he went to the ground was after he made contact with me.

"It's not a very good play. I'm all for playing the game hard. I think I play as hard as anybody. But you play hard, and you play clean."

Ruiz admitted he did not made much of an effort to slide.

"He thought I was too high," Ruiz said. "I saw the replay and it was a little high."

After the umpiring crew separated the two players, a double play was ruled due to interference by Ruiz. Shane Victorino, who doubled to lead off the inning, was sent back to third, and Maddux got counterpart Jamie Moyer to ground out to end the inning.

Ironically, it was Giles that lead off the fifth for the Padres. He was booed vigorously by the hometown faithful but silenced the crowd with a leadoff single.

A walk to Brian Giles sandwiched between strikeouts of Maddux and Mike Cameron gave San Diego runners at first and second with two outs. Bradley then launched his first homer to left, and Gonzalez followed with his second for a 6-3 lead.

Khalil Greene reached on an error by third baseman Abraham Nunez and rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff followed with a single. Josh Bard delivered the final blow of the frame, a two-run double to make it 8-3.

"We are just trying to prove people wrong," Bradley said. "Back in San Diego, all they talk about is how bad an offensive team we are, last in the league and everything, but we somehow win. The pitching has been carrying us the first half, and now it's time for the offense to step it up."

Moyer (11-10) struggled for his second straight outing, allowing eight runs - six earned - and 10 hits in just 4 2/3 innings. The 44-year-old lefthander also gave up eight earned runs in four innings of an 11-6 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday.

San Diego tacked on two runs in the seventh as Geoff Blum, who replaced Marcus Giles following his at-bat in the fifth, hit an RBI grounder before scoring on Brian Giles' double two batters later.

"It was a good game for about four innings, and then it got ugly," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "We have to play better than that. It was a good crowd and we stunk up the joint."

Bard went 5-for-6 with three RBI and Gonzalez and Kouzmanoff each collected four of the Padres' season-high 22 hits - the most allowed by the Phillies this year.

"We've been swinging the bats well on this trip," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "We have a number of guys swinging well, and that's what it takes. We haven't had a lot of that over the course of the season. ... We have really strung together a great number of at-bats, and you saw the results tonight."

Ryan Howard drove in two runs for the Phillies, topping the 100-RBI mark for the second straight season.