• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Padres pound 16 hits to down Dodgers

Apr 12, 2008 - 7:37 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- In a battle between staff aces, it was the offense that made the difference.

Kevin Kouzmanoff had three hits while five other players each had two hits for the San Diego Padres, who claimed a 7-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

The Padres finished the game with 16 hits - 15 singles - and put the game away with a pair of offensive eruptions in the fourth and eighth innings.

"I know we didn't have a lot of extra-base hits, but we strung some hits together and had some huge two-out hits and executed with runners in scoring position," Padres ace Jake Peavy said. "Outstanding night, outstanding team play tonight against a great team."

Peavy (3-0) had been stellar in his first two outings this season and had another strong outing on Friday.

The 26-year-old righthander allowed just three runs on nine hits in six innings, walking two while striking out four.

"This is what it's all about, finding ways to win," Peavy said. "To come away with a team win on a day I didn't have (my best stuff), I am very proud of, not myself, but of the boys behind me."

Trevor Hoffman allowed two hits and walked two in 2/3 innings, but picked up his third save of the season by getting Jeff Kent to strike out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning.

"It looks as though his velocity, arm action, and the (changeup) is all there just that for whatever reason the location is just off by inches," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It's not alarming because he's throwing good pitches and hitting the glove, he's just off."

Brad Penny wasn't as impressive as Peavy, surrendering four runs and 10 hits while walking three and striking out three in six innings.

"We didn't struggle against Peavy, I just think I didn't do a good job," Penny said. "They hit a lot of foul balls which made my pitch count high. ... It's not easy trying to win games base-to-base, they didn't try to do much just put the ball in play and it worked for them."

"Both [Peavy] and Penny battled, they didn't give in, they gave up some hits and both went six innings but they will both tell you they weren't on top of their game," Black said.

Andre Either drove in a run in both the first and third innings to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 advantage.

"We couldn't have had it any better than we had it early," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "It's frustrating because you don't get a chance to hit Peavy like we did."

In the top of the fourth, the Padres exploded for four runs on six hits.

Jim Edmonds and Scott Hairston both singled around a flyout by Khalil Greene to put runners at first and second with one out in the inning.

After Edmonds scored on a single by Josh Bard, Hairston was thrown out at third on a fielder's choice by Peavy. Brian Giles followed with a single to right, plating Bard as Peavy scampered to third.

Peavy and Giles both scored on a single by Tadahito Iguchi before Adrian Gonzalez gave San Diego a 4-2 lead with an RBI single to center.

The Dodgers narrowed the deficit to 4-3 when James Loney blasted a solo home run to right field in the sixth, but the Padres regained a two-run lead when Greene plated Kouzmanoff with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh.

Juan Pierre kept Los Angeles within one run, 5-4, with a squeeze play in the seventh but, the Padres sealed the victory with a pair of runs in the eighth.

Iguchi picked up another RBI single in the frame before he crossed the plate on a single by Kouzmanoff with two outs in the inning.

Pierre drove in another run in the ninth to account for the final margin before Hoffman extinguished the bases-loaded threat to hand the Dodgers their fourth straight loss.

"Sure they're frustrated but they'll go out (on Saturday) and play hard," Torre said. "We'll just have to go out there and keep our heads up."