The Sports Xchange
May 21, 2017
SAN DIEGO -- Left-hander Clayton Richard threw a complete-game five-hitter and drove in a run with a single Sunday afternoon as the San Diego Padres defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1 at Petco Park to end a pair of five-game streaks.
The Diamondbacks had won five straight games and outscored the Padres 19-2 in the first two games of the series. The Padres had lost five in a row and were 3-13 over their previous 16 games.
The lone blemish against Richard was a solo homer by Arizona catcher Chris Iannetta with one out in the third inning. Richard didn't issue a walk while striking out six as he improved to 3-5 with the fourth complete game of his career. He threw 96 pitches with 65 going for strikes.
Richard threw a complete-game, five-hit shutout in 2012.
Right-hander Zack Godley (1-1) gave up six hits in a three-run Padres fifth and suffered the loss for Arizona.
The Padres, who had scored two runs on eight hits over the first 22 innings of the series, could have scored even more in the fifth hadn't the inning ended on a bases-loaded fan interference call.
Ryan Schimpf opened the fifth with his 10th homer of the season -- and his first since May 8 -- on a 368-foot drive into the right field seats.
Hunter Renfroe followed with a double to right-center and scored when Diamondbacks center fielder Gregor Blanco bobbled Austin Hedges one-out single over second base for an error. Erick Aybar followed with a double down the line in right to put Padres at second and third.
Richard then drove in the inning's third run with a single through the right side of Arizona's infield.
With Padres at the corners and one out, rookie center fielder Manuel Margot tried to score Aybar from third on a suicide squeeze. But his bunt stopped right in front of the plate allowing Iannetta to make the tag.
Then it really got interesting. After Allen Cordoba singled to load the bases, Wil Myers hit a deep fly in foul territory down the right field line. As Chris Owings was coming over make the play, a fan reached out of the stands and caught the ball above the field of play. Crew chief Brian Gorman signaled interference as the first base umpire and the call was upheld on appeal.
Godley allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk with a strikeout in seven innings.
The Padres scored two unearned runs in the eighth against left-handed reliever T.J. McFarland, who was activated from the 10-day disabled list Sunday morning. Cordoba reached on a force out and advanced to third when McFarland walked Myers and hit Schimpf with a pitch to load the bases.
Cordoba scored by beating McFarland's toss to the plate on Renfroe's roller up the third-base line. Myers scored on a sacrifice fly by Cory Spangenberg.
Arizona had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Iannetta hit a 406-foot homer to right center off Richard. The homer came on the first pitch that Iannetta had seen since being hit in the face by a fastball thrown by the Pirates' Johnny Barbato on May 12. Iannetta had come off the seven-day concussion disabled list Saturday night.
NOTES -- The Diamondbacks on Sunday morning placed RHP Taijuan Walker on the 10-day disabled list with a blister on his right index finger. Walker shut out the Padres on two hits over six innings Friday night. ... To replace Walker on the 25-man roster, Arizona activated LHP T.J. McFarland from the 10-day disabled list. McFarland had been out since May 10 with a left ankle contusion. ... The Padres claimed INF Chase d'Arnaud off waivers from the Boston Red Sox. D'Arnaud, who has made around half his career appearances at shortstop, will join the Padres Tuesday in New York. ... RHP Trevor Cahill had an MRI exam Sunday following an aborted throwing session from 75 feet Saturday. Cahill will not be coming off the disabled list this week as the Padres hoped.