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Padres hold off Mariners to win interleague series

May 21, 2007 - 1:42 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- San Diego Padres pitcher Justin Germano continues to impress.

Germano pitched six strong innings and the bullpen took care of the rest as the Padres defeated the Seattle Mariners 2-1 to take two-of-three games in their interleague series.

In three starts this season, Germano is 2-0 and has allowed just one earned run in 19 innings for a 0.47 ERA. In Sunday's start, the righthander allowed one unearned on six hits and did not allow a walk.

"I felt like I really didn't have my best stuff out there," Germano said. "My fastball was up there and I wasn't throwing my curveball for strikes as much as I would have liked. I just tried to battle with what I had and get a good solid six innings out of that."

Relievers Health Bell and Scott Linebrink held Seattle scoreless through the seventh and eighth innings before Trevor Hoffman worked out of trouble in the ninth to record his 11th save of the season.

Jose Guillen and Ben Broussard opened ninth with back-to-back singles off Hoffman, but the veteran closer induced a popout from Adrian Beltre and a flyout by Yuniesky Betancourt before striking out Jose Lopez to end the game.

"You just have to slow things down a little bit and make your pitches," said Hoffman, who has 15 career saves against the Mariners. "It's not like we don't know one another. Most of the games we have played have been pretty tight."

Hoffman is baseball's all-time saves leader with 493 and is seeking to become the first to reach 500 career saves.

Adrian Gonzalez had three hits and drove in the go-ahead run for the Padres in the third inning.

Marcus Giles led off the third with a double and it appeared he would be stranded after starter Felix Hernandez (2-2) recorded back-to-back strikeouts of Jose Cruz Jr. and Mike Cameron.

However, Gonzalez delivered a clutch two-out single to center that brought Giles home. Josh Bard had an RBI double in the second inning to account for the only other San Diego tally.

Marcus Giles and Khalil Greene added two hits apiece for the Padres, who stranded 15 runners in the game and left the bases loaded twice.

"(Hernandez) is the type of guy who is going to leave a lot of runners on base because he can get out of jams with a strikeout," Gonzalez said. "But our pitching did great and it was because of them that we won."

Germano, 24, was called up from Class AAA Portland on May 7 to replace Clay Hensley, who went on the disabled list with a groin injury.

"Germano is pitching in the big leagues where he left off in Triple-A," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Now he's showing that he's ready to put his stamp on how he's going to pitch."

Seattle manager Mike Hargrove described the 24-year-old righthander's performance as "impressive."

"He threw his soft stuff over for strikes whether he was behind or ahead in the count," he said. "He threw a lot of curveballs, a lot of changeups, a lot of two-seamers and stayed down with everything. He was good today."

In his second his second start since returning from the disabled list, Hernandez allowed two runs, eight hits and three walks while striking out nine.

"I threw too many pitches (103)," Hernandez said. "When I get a lot of strikeouts, it means I'm throwing too many pitches. I should be getting more ground balls."

The 21-year-old righthander had been sidelined since April 18 after straining his right forearm against the Minnesota Twins. He came within five outs of a no-hitter April 11 at Boston and struck out 12 in eight scoreless frames in Seattle's season-opening win against Oakland.

"(Hernandez) was inconsistent with his command," Hargrove said. "In the first inning he was fine, but after that he struggled and got some balls up. He didn't pitch as well as he can, but he did pitch well enough to win."

Jose Lopez accounted for the Mariners' only run with a two-out RBI double in the second inning.

Ichiro Suzuki had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Over the streak, Ichiro is batting .472 (26-for-55).