• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Salazar's pinch hit lifts Padres over Phils in 10

Jun 6, 2010 - 11:22 PM PHILADELPHIA(AP) -- A run in the 10th inning nearly wasn't enough for the San Diego Padres. They needed a key defensive play from center fielder Tony Gwynn Jr. to hold off the Philadelphia Phillies.

Adrian Gonzalez homered and drove in three runs, Chase Headley had four hits and San Diego beat the Phillies 6-5 Sunday on pinch-hitter Oscar Salazar's two-out infield single in the 10th.

"That one was grinder," Padres manager Bud Black said. "A hot Sunday afternoon, both teams score early and settle down. We chipped away and got a big hit late. A number of guys contributed against a good team."

Heath Bell got through a shaky 10th inning for his 15th save in 18 chances. Placido Polanco walked with one out and tried to go to third on Chase Utley's soft single, but was thrown out by Gwynn.

"One out, you have to try," Polanco said. "Base hit, I've got to make it to third somehow. The ball wasn't hit hard. He had to come and he had to do what he did. It was perfect. If you give him another 10 shots, I don't know how many times he's going to do it like that."

Playing deep in a no-doubles alignment, Gwynn charged in and made an off-balance, one-hop throw to Headley, who tagged Polanco.

"With the play in front of you, you have a good chance to gauge where the baserunner is," Gwynn said. "Because the ball wasn't hit very hard, I knew if I was going to make an attempt at third, the only chance I had was to get rid of it quickly and make sure it was low enough so the guy couldn't advance to second. I didn't have time to set my feet, so I just let it go. The throw was online, Chase made a good tag down and we were fortunate to get it."

Howard singled to put runners at the corners, but Jayson Werth struck out on a 97 mph fastball to end the game.

Nick Hundley also homered for the Padres, who scored three times in the first against Joe Blanton and finished with 16 hits. But the Phillies came right back behind Ryan Howard's three RBIs to take a 5-3 lead and chase starter Kevin Correia in the second.

Headley opened the 10th with a single off Danys Baez (2-2) and advanced to third on a sacrifice and a grounder to second. After an intentional walk to Gwynn, Salazar singled deep into the shortstop hole to put the Padres ahead 6-5.

Mike Adams (1-1) pitched two scoreless innings for the win, after Philadelphia had won the first two games of a four-game series that concludes Monday. The Phillies left 15 runners on base.

San Diego scored three first-inning runs off Blanton, with two coming on Gonzalez's 11th homer. A two-out single by Matt Stairs drove in Headley for the third run.

Philadelphia scored once in the bottom half, then took advantage of San Diego's poor defense and Correia's control lapses to take the lead in a four-run second.

Raul Ibanez began the inning with a walk ahead of Brian Schneider's fly to center. Juan Castro chopped a ball to shortstop Jerry Hairston Jr., who stepped on second but threw low to first, preventing an inning-ending double play.

Blanton singled, Shane Victorino walked to load the bases and Polanco tied the game with a two-run single. A walk to Utley loaded the bases again for Howard, who lined a shot to a perfectly positioned Lance Zawadzki in short right, but the ball clanged off the second baseman's glove and was ruled a hit, allowing two more runs to score.

San Diego scored a run in the fourth on Gonzalez's two-out single and tied it at 5 on Hundley's homer leading off the fifth.

Blanton allowed 11 hits and five runs in five innings. His ERA is 6.07.

"I feel like I'm pretty close to where I need to be," said Blanton, who missed the first month of the season with a strained right oblique muscle. "It's just a couple of pitches that hurt me, which makes the games look a lot worse than I feel like I'm throwing. A couple of mistakes and I'm getting killed. I guess I can't make any more mistakes."

NOTES: Padres OF Will Venable didn't start and is still experiencing the effects of a sore neck, sustained while sliding into third base on Friday. He came in as a defensive replacement. ... Schneider's seventh-inning double was his first extra-base hit of the season.