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Stults' arm, bat leads Padres over D'Backs

Aug 25, 2012 - 4:57 AM Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) - Eric Stults did it all Friday, tossing seven scoreless innings and driving in three runs as the Padres downed the Diamondbacks, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game series.

Stults (4-2) scattered three hits and one walk and added a two-run single and an RBI double to carry San Diego to a fifth straight victory.

"He had command of all four pitches, changed speeds on his fastball, which he does, and had the Diamondbacks off balance," Padres manager Bud Black said of his starter.

Chris Denorfia hit a solo homer and added a sacrifice fly as part of a 13-hit attack against Patrick Corbin and the Arizona bullpen.

Corbin (5-5), who was 3-0 with a 2.77 ERA in four starts since his recall from the minor leagues on Aug. 1, surrendered four runs on nine hits over four innings to take the loss.

Arizona had just four hits two days after sweeping the Marlins in the first doubleheader in Chase Field history.

Stults, a career .238 hitter (15-for-63) coming in, stepped up with the bases loaded in the second inning and stroked a 1-1 fastball into center field to knock in Yasmani Grandal and Yonder Alonso, who both reached on singles and moved up on Everth Cabrera's two-out walk.

Denorfia led off the next inning with his fifth home run of the season, and Stults delivered again with two outs in the fourth, this time hammering a 1-2 pitch into the left-field gap to plate Cameron Maybin.

The Diamondbacks' best chance to score came in the fifth when their first two hitters singled, but Stults retired the next three, including an inning-ending strikeout of Chris Young.

Again Stults helped himself with the bat in the seventh, as his sacrifice bunt moved Cabrera to third following the shortstop's leadoff double. Denorfia's sac fly to right plated Cabrera.

"We know (Stults) can swing the bat pretty decently. He hit a couple of fastballs, but we have to do a better job than that," Diamondbacks head coach Kirk Gibson said. "It was a very poor game for us."

Nick Vincent picked up where Stults left off and tossed a scoreless eighth, and Tom Layne hurled a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the shutout.

Game Notes

Stults threw 63 of his 103 pitches for strikes ... The Padres have won five straight at Chase Field ... Arizona had held the Marlins scoreless in the final 16 innings of Thursday's doubleheader ... Arizona did not record an extra-base hit.