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Padres use long ball to provide Maddux win No. 344

Sep 4, 2007 - 12:56 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Thanks to a power surge, the San Diego Padres kicked off a crucial nine-game road trip in impressive fashion.

Brian Giles posted his third multi-homer game since August 11 and the Padres connected for four blasts in the first three frames en route to a 10-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Greg Maddux (11-9) pitched well into the seventh inning for San Diego (76-61), which took a one-game lead over Arizona (76-63) for first place in the National League West in a road trip that will continue through Colorado and Los Angeles over the next week.

"This team has been on an even keel all year," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Recently we have had good pitching and have been swinging the bats much better. When you combine those two in most cases you win games. I felt it today (being like a playoff atmosphere) the players felt it everybody knows this series and this trip are important games."

Giles led off the contest against Diamondbacks rookie starter Micah Owings by slamming a 1-0 offering over the right field fence for his ninth homer of the season.

After Geoff Blum belted a two-run blast in the second, Giles led off the third by taking the first pitch from Owings again over the right field fence to complete his 19th multi-homer game of his career.

"I was trying to get on base at the first at-bat so we could get some runs early," Giles said. "I wanted to get things going and help take the pressure off of Maddux."

Since returning from the disabled list on June 29, the veteran lefthanded hitter is batting .311 with nine homers, 29 RBI and 32 walks in 54 games.

"It has not been just me," Giles said. "We all have been getting timely hits, big hits. It is just baseball where you are going to go through some tough times but hopefully we now have those in the past and we can move on and play good ball this last month."

Adrian Gonzalez made it 5-0 later in the third with his career-high 25th home run of the season. He singled home two runs during a three-run ninth to complete the onslaught.

The lefthanded slugger has hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games at .391 (25-for-64) with six home runs and 13 RBI.

Kevin Kouzmanoff homered in the sixth off Brandon Medders to give the Padres a season high-tying fifth homer. The club stroked five home runs on June 17 against the Chicago Cubs.

The power surge was a welcome sight for Maddux, who was 0-6 with a 5.67 ERA in 10 starts at Chase Field and 1-10 lifetime against Arizona.

"This was a great win because it matters," Maddux said. "It is nice to get a win and personally, yea I am glad I won here and hope to win next time. It is nice to get the lead early here for a change but more importantly it is nice to get the win at this time of the season."

On Wednesday, Maddux matched up with Owings in San Diego and yielded a run and eight hits in five frames of an eventual Padres 3-1 triumph.

Staked to an early lead, the 41-year-old cruised to his fourth straight win. He yielded two runs - one on Eric Byrnes' 20th homer in the fourth - and six hits and increased his consecutive innings streak without a walk to 48 1/3 innings.

Owings (6-8) departed after three innings, yielding five runs and four hits - all homers. Owings, with just one win since June 20, allowed one run in six frames on Wednesday.

"I was trying to put my team in a posistion to win and I am disappointed that I didn't get it done," Owings said. "They hit three out and they were all on different pitches so it just wasn't one thing."

Arizona has now dropped 10 of their last 15 games and six of their last eight.

"I don't feel as bad now as I did early in that game," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "I think we will be alright. We have hit some dry spots in the season before. I know there is not as much time left but one game back is not the worse place in the world to be either."