Padres beat Braves 3-2 in 12 innings
SAN DIEGO (AP) Will Venable hit a game-winning single in the bottom of the 12th inning off closer Craig Kimbrel to give the San Diego Padres a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.
Yangervis Solarte walked to start the 12th, and Jedd Gyorko and Chris Nelson drew consecutive one-out walks. Venable followed with his game-winning single over the head of right fielder Jason Heyward to give the Padres their fourth win in five games. Atlanta extended its losing streak to five games.
Tim Stauffer (3-2) pitched two innings for the win. Kimbrel (0-3) took the loss.
The Braves loaded the bases in the top of the 12th with no outs, but Stauffer got Evan Gattis to hit into a third-to-home-to-first double play and retired Chris Johnson on a groundout.
Atlanta tied the game at 2 in the eighth on Heyward's single, a walk and Johnson's RBI single.
Trailing 1-0, the Padres went ahead in the seventh. Rene Rivera led off with a single, was sacrificed to second and scored on Solarte's two-out single. After San Diego loaded the bases, Jordan Whalden relieved Ervin Santana and threw a wild pitch that allowed Solarte to score for a 2-1 lead.
Santana allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings with six strikeouts and four walks.
Santana pitched eight shutout innings with 11 strikeouts against the Padres on Monday in the Braves' 2-0 win in Atlanta.
San Diego's Tommy Medica had two more hits, including a second-inning single that gave him hits in six consecutive at-bats. Medica went 5 for 5 on Friday with two two-run homers, setting career highs for hits, RBIs and runs with four.
Ian Kennedy, who skipped his last start on Monday at Atlanta with a left oblique strain, was lifted after five innings. The right-hander allowed one run and two hits with seven strikeouts and five walks.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Braves: Heyward was back in the starting lineup after missing four games with a strained back. ''It's been four days, but it seems like it's been a month,'' Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Padres: Right-hander Andrew Cashner (right shoulder soreness) will make a rehab start Friday with Single-A Lake Elsinore. ... Left fielder Carlos Quentin, on the 15-day DL (left knee soreness), will get a second opinion in Los Angeles sometime in the coming week. ... Catcher Yasmani Grandal (fluid in right knee) was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game.
ON DECK
Braves: Right-hander Aaron Harang (9-6, 3.43 ERA) pitches in the series finale at Petco Park where he resurrected his career by going 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA in 2011, his only season with San Diego.
Padres: Right-hander Tyson Ross (10-10, 2.60) has thrown eight consecutive games of six or more innings while allowing two or fewer runs, the longest streak in the NL and second in the majors to Seattle's Felix Hernandez, who has done it 14 straight games.