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Iguchi's walk-off homer sends Padres to win

Apr 27, 2008 - 1:30 AM By Tim Powers PA Sportsticker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Tadahito Iguchi picked an opportune time to break out of a slump.

Mired in a 3-for-35 rut, Iguchi capped a fine performance with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 13th inning that sent the San Diego Padres to an 8-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday.

Iguchi, who also singled and scored three times, belted a 3-2 fastball from Yusmeiro Petit (0-1) into the left field seats with one out to give San Diego its first extra-inning win in four chances.

"I didn't really expect to hit one there," Iguchi said through an interpreter. "We are struggling as a team, so to be able to hit one here was big. Even in batting practice, not many balls fly out of here, so I wasn't sure. I was running as hard I could."

The extra-inning affair was the third in five games for the Padres, who had lost nine of their previous 10 overall.

"It was a great win against a very hot team," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Every pitch from about the seventh inning on was critical. We've played a number of those games this year. The guys were, to say the least, extremely excited about winning that one."

Glendon Rusch (1-2) allowed two hits and two walks over the final four frames to pick up the win.

San Diego, which had managed a total of six runs over its previous five home games, finally awoke in the second inning, pushing across four runs against Arizona starter Micah Owings before Brian Giles' solo homer in the fourth gave the Padres a 5-0 lead.

That output surpassed the total runs scored at Petco Park by the Padres in their previous 61 innings. Giles' blast was San Diego's first in its last 10 home games.

It was not enough, however, as Arizona posted two runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings to take a 6-5 edge.

San Diego answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to regain a lead that changed hands four times.

Conor Jackson's seventh-inning RBI single plated Eric Byrnes - who opened the inning with a double against reliever Cla Meredith - to even the contest at 7-7. Each teams' relief corps held the opposing offense scoreless over the next four frames until Iguchi's solo shot.

"A lot of times in games like that, guys try to do too much," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "You could see guys on both sides just trying to hit home runs. It's just human nature to try to be the hero and try to end it. It looked like that was the case for both sides, and they finally got one."

Owings allowed five runs in five innings but contributed three hits, including a run-scoring double in the sixth on which he sprained his right ankle while running the bases.

"Early on, I wasn't doing what I could for the team, but I settled back in and was feeling pretty good," Owings said. "I did feel pretty good at the plate. It was not one of my better outings, but it was a solid ballgame with all of the battling back and forth."