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Germano continues surprising showing vs. Devil Rays

Jun 14, 2007 - 9:12 PM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Although he is not as highly regarded, Justin Germano has no trouble following up Jake Peavy.

Germano threw six scoreless innings as the San Diego Padres won the rubber game of a three-game interleague series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7-1, on Thursday.

Claimed off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies in March, Germano (5-0) continued his surprising start to the season, yielding three hits and a walk. He also struck out four.

"Not too bad. I'll take it," Germano said. "Each start everything feels a bit more comfortable."

"I thought he threw the ball extremely well," Padres manager Bud Black said. "He had some good inside fastballs and overall it was a very solid outing."

The strong effort by the 24-year-old came a day after Peavy, the National League ERA leader in 2004, went seven innings in a 9-0 victory that snapped the Padres' four-game losing streak.

Behind the exploits of Peavy, Germano and the likes of Chris Young and Greg Maddux, San Diego entered the day first in the major leagues with a team ERA of 2.97 - the only team under three.

In fact, Germano credits Maddux with helping him make the most out of his latest stint in the majors. Prior to this season, the righthander had made seven appearances between the Padres and Cincinnati Reds, going 1-3 with a 8.04 ERA

"I give a lot of credit to (Greg) Maddux," he said. "I try to get any kind of information I can out of him. He tells me to keep it simple, stick to your game plan and make your pitches."

After winning four of his first five outings, the righthanded Germano did experience some problems in his previous start against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, giving up five runs and eight hits in five innings of a 6-5 loss.

Germano bounced back in fine fashion against Tampa Bay, yielding just a walk through the first three frames.

The Devil Rays did pick up their first hit in the fourth on a one-out double by Brendan Harris, but Germano came back to strike out both Carl Crawford and Greg Norton to end the threat.

In the sixth, Germano worked his way around a one-out single by Akinori Iwamura before inducing Harris to ground into a inning-ending double play.

Although Germano does not have overpowering stuff, he did impress Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon.

"They're guy today, not a power pitcher at all," he said. "But he really knows how to pitch."

Tampa Bay engineered a serious threat in the seventh against reliever Heath Bell, putting runners on second and third following consecutive two-out walks and a wild pitch. Bell, however, struck out rookie Delmon Young to end the threat.

Holding a 1-0 lead following an RBI single by Mike Cameron in the first inning, San Diego opened up the contest with a four-run eighth.

The Padres chased Devil Rays starter J.P. Howell (1-1) after Rob Bowen opened the inning with a double. Two batters later, Jose Cruz Jr. delivered an RBI single off Gary Glover and Adrian Gonzalez followed with run-scoring double for a 3-0 advantage.

Geoff Blum, who replaced injured rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff in the fourth inning, and Khalil Greene both singled home a run in the frame.

Although Tampa Bay avoided a second straight shutout in the bottom half on a home run by Jonny Gomes, San Diego got two more runs in the ninth behind an RBI single by Marcus Giles and a sacrifice fly by Cameron.

Gomes, who was recalled from Class AAA Durham on Wednesday, struck out in his first at-bat. One of the reasons that he was demoted this season was because of his lack on contact, striking out 18 times while batting .184 in 19 previous games.

"After my first at-bat I said 'Here we go,'" Gomes said. "Luckily I got a good pitch to hit at the end."

Howell was charged with two runs - one earned - and four hits allowed in seven-plus innings. He also walked three.

"Overall (I pitched) well," Howell said. "Just a tough assignment. All I do is keep adjusting and keep doing what I'm doing."

After posting an 11-4 victory in Tuesday's series opener, the Devil Rays managed just nine hits over the last two games.

"Just get the Padres pitchers out of town," Maddon said. "We got beat by some really good pitching the last couple of nights. That's why they're in first place."