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Padres stagger Webb, Diamondbacks

Aug 27, 2008 - 7:26 AM By Jamie McConeghy PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- On paper, a matchup between Brandon Webb and rookie Cory Reineke figured to be a no-contest as the Arizona Diamondbacks' ace sought his 20th victory of the season.

There was an unexpected knockout, however, as the San Diego Padres erupted for five runs in the third inning against Webb en route to a 9-2 victory over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Reineke (2-1), making his third career start since being called up from Class AAA Portland, allowed two runs and two hits in five innings. The righthander struck out four and walked four.

"He was pretty good tonight," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "He had the knack of making a pitch when he had to."

"My focus is to keep their runs off the board, and hopefully, we score some runs," Reineke said. "In the back of your mind, you know you have to be pretty good with (Webb) pitching because runs will be hard to come by. But our offense was awesome tonight."

Clay Hensley, Mike Adams, Brian Falkenborg, Heath Bell and Brett Tomko combined to keep the Diamondbacks quiet over the final four innings. San Diego pitchers have allowed a total of seven hits in the first two games of the series - both victories.

"Our bullpen did a great job," Black said. "They were aggressive and went right at them. They all looked good tonight."

Webb (19-5), who had won eight consecutive decisions, gave up six runs, nine hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings.

"I don't know. I felt fine, but I just didn't have very good stuff," Webb said. "I was just wanting to get out of that inning. It was just brutal. It was not fun and I just wasn't making any pitches at all. Couldn't get ahead, which I've been pretty good at the past few games, and that's always tough pitching from behind."

"You don't see that from Webb very often," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "Even his body language, you could just tell he didn't have it tonight."

Webb retired the first six batters before giving up back-to-back singles by Nick Hundley and Tadahito Iguchi. Two batters later, Giles drilled a 3-1 pitch over the right field wall to give San Diego a 3-0 advantage.

"I don't think he had his best stuff," Giles said. "We did a good job of waiting for balls that were up in the zone."

Kouzmanoff padded the lead with a two-out, two-run double to right-center.

"(Webb) was pretty efficient the first two innings," Black said. "A guy with such great movement and downward movement, you have to recognize it real early if you are going to lay off of it. There are times when guys have too much movement, and I don't know if that was the case tonight, but we did do a good job of laying off it down."

Adam Dunn singled with two outs in the fourth and Mark Reynolds launched a home run over the left-center wall to bring Arizona within 5-2.

The Padres tacked on a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Chase Headley. They added two in the seventh on Kouzmanoff's second double and another run-scoring single by Headley.

Jody Gerut's eighth-inning base hit scored Scott Hairston to cap the scoring.

"Going in, as tough as it is to go against Webb, we tried to get him to get the ball up," Black said. "It was a very good inning against a guy who looks like he is on his way to the Cy Young (Award)."