San Francisco – The crowd showed up to see off Barry Bonds.
Jake Peavy showed up to make sure San Diego is around another week. Peavy won his NL-leading 19th game, and the Padres spoiled Bonds’ home finale for San Francisco with a much-needed 11-3 victory over the Giants on Wednesday night.
These resilient Padres might just make a push for a third straight NL West crown.
San Diego remained one game up on Philadelphia and Colorado in the NL wild-card race and pulled within one game of division-leading Arizona after the Diamondbacks lost 5-1 at Pittsburgh.
Peavy (19-6) got Bonds to ground out weakly in his first two at-bats and to fly out to the warning track in right-center to end the sixth – and that was it for the home run king in his final game as a Giant in the club’s waterfront ballpark.
Khalil Greene and Josh Bard hit back-to-back two-run singles in the fifth inning, when San Diego got seven base hits and chased Giants starter Pat Misch (0-4). Bard and Geoff Blum had consecutive RBI doubles in the second.
The Padres finish the season with four games at Milwaukee, starting tonight.
PHILLIES 5, BRAVES 2 at Philadelphia: Kyle Lohse gave the Phillies something they have sorely lacked down the stretch. Then Washington helped them move closer to first place.
Lohse (9-12) became the first Phillies starter to pitch seven innings in two weeks, and Philadelphia moved within one game of the NL East-leading Mets with a victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Several players gathered in the clubhouse and ate their postgame meals while watching the Nationals beat the Mets 9-6. The Phillies and Mets have four games left.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Lohse said. “You have a lot of pressure, but you have to block it out.”
The Phillies haven’t spent a day in first place all season, and were seven games behind the Mets after losing to Colorado on Sept. 12. But then the Phillies beat the Rockies, starting a six-game winning streak that got them back in the hunt.
