Posey homers to back Zito, Giants beat Padres

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- San Diego outfielder Kyle Blanks traded a few stitches for an out and would do it again. He just wishes his team could have had a little more success.

Barry Zito and Chad Gaudin combined on a six-hitter, Buster Posey homered and the San Francisco Giants beat the Padres 5-0 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.

The Padres were shut out for the second straight day and failed to score in their last 21 innings against Giants pitching.

"We were hitting the ball hard," said Blanks, who sustained a cut on his left eyelid when his sunglasses sliced into the eyelid as he smacked into the left field wall while making a catch in the sixth inning. "I don't know, he mixed his pitches and kept us off balance in and out. We just ran out of innings."

Blanks held onto the ball, wobbled a bit and then fell to his knees after retiring Joaquin Arias. He immediately exited the game and had four stitches put in his eyelid.

"That wall is pretty sturdy, let's just say that," Blanks said. "I feel fine, I'm just a little sore. My back is sore. It comes with the territory. I'm not going to play any less aggressively just because of a couple of surgeries. I'm happy I hung on to it."

Zito (3-1) bounced back from the worst start of big league career to beat the Padres for the first time in nearly two years. He allowed five hits in seven innings, struck out four, walked one and did not give up run for the third time in four starts.

"That's what Barry does," Padres' manager Bud Black said. "He pitches to the top of the zone and keeps you just off balance enough to mess up your timing. We hit the ball hard right at people."

Posey's first home run of the season was just the 11th this year for the power-starved Giants. Before the two-out, two-run drive off Eric Stults (2-2) in the fifth, Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford had accounted for all of San Francisco's homers.

"That pitch to Posey is the one pitch I'd like to have back," Stults said. "I felt I was making good pitches. Torres happened to get the ball to right field, and that wasn't even a strike to Crawford and I fell behind Pagan 3-0 and the next pitch came back over the plate."

Zito's outing followed gems by San Francisco starters Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum, and helped the Giants sweep the Padres in a series of three games or more for the first time since Sept. 12-14, 2011.

San Diego opened its six-game trip by taking three straight from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"You wouldn't think it would turn out this way after our at bats in L.A.," Black said. "Bumgarner pitched a great game, Lincecum kept it going and Zito carried it over. I can't put my finger on it other than to say they made pitches."

San Diego has started 5-13 for the second straight season. The Padres didn't have an extra-base hit in the game and failed to get a runner to second base over the final seven innings.

Stults, who had won four of his previous six starts against the Giants, gave up all five runs and eight hits in seven innings. He walked none for the second time this season.

NOTES:
Padres OF Carlos Quentin has been working out at Petco Field while serving his eight-game suspension for charging Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke. ... LHP Clayton Richards, who was scratched from Saturday's game with flu-like symptoms, is scheduled to make his next start Tuesday. ... San Francisco RHP Ryan Vogelsong (1-1) pitches the series opener against Arizona on Monday. ... RHP Jason Marquis (1-1) starts for the Padres when they begin a six-game homestand against the Brewers on Monday. ... Padres C Nick Hundley recorded his team-high sixth multi-hit game of the season.