NewsPadres lose to hot-hitting Angels
Kouzmanoff goes 3-for-4 with home run in the loss
By Corey Brock / MLB.com
06/13/09 2:25 AM ET
ANAHEIM -- By no means is Padres manager Bud Black some sort of Interleague historian, though he has been around long enough to know that these matchups against teams from the American League typically mean trouble for the Padres.Such was the case Friday when Black's return to Anaheim, the place where he coached pitchers for seven seasons, was unduly spoiled by the Angels, who hung 11 runs and 18 hits on the Padres for an 11-6 victory at Angel Stadium.
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The Padres, who had the worst Interleague record in the Major Leagues last season at 3-15, have two more games this weekend against the Angels (30-29), a team that ran away with the American League West Division title a year ago with performances like this.
But, as Black said, just don't pin the loss on the fact that the Padres were simply facing a team from the other league. Black wasn't buying that.
"Historically, the Padres have not been good," Black said. "To combat that, you have to pitch better. Whether it's Interleague or not, you have to pitch well."
The Padres (28-32) didn't do nearly enough of that, as starting pitcher Chad Gaudin (2-5) allowed eight runs on 10 hits in three-plus innings. He wasn't able to get an out in the fourth inning when the Angels tied a club record with seven consecutive hits.
Relievers Edwin Moreno (two runs in two innings) and Mike Adams (one run over one inning) couldn't stop the Angels, either.
"Offensively, they're up there in batting average as a team," Black said. "They have guys at the top who can run and guys at the bottom who can run. A lot of their guys are hitting for average. They'll press a defense."
They did so Friday with a pair of home runs, the first was a two-run home run by Torii Hunter in the first inning on a slider that Gaudin admitted afterward was about the only pitch that he would have wanted back. Kendry Morales also had a home run in that five-run fourth.
"He just couldn't get the ball in good spots consistently," Black said. "He got the ball in the strike zone for the most part. He just couldn't gain any momentum."
The Angels, who got four hits from Maicer Izturis, had their fair share of line drives and bloopers as well as opposite-field hits in the game, especially that fourth inning. That the Padres made two errors in the inning certainly didn't help.
As for Gaudin, who has allowed 13 runs in his last two starts spanning just eight innings, he had few regrets about his pitch selection, other than the slider that Hunter got a hold of in the first inning.
"I was hitting my spots, every ball found a hole. If I went back and threw them again, I would throw the same pitches," Gaudin said.
The Padres leaned on Angels starting pitcher Matt Palmer (6-0) heavily in the first few innings, scoring once in the second inning, twice in the third and then one more time in the fourth inning.
The Padres had four singles in the second inning, but managed one run. David Eckstein and Brian Giles had consecutive doubles to start the third inning, but the Padres scored just twice.
Kevin Kouzmanoff, who had three hits, gave the Padres a jolt in the seventh inning with a two-run home run to left-center. Kouzmanoff has knocked in 11 runs in his last six games and has raised his average from .218 to .239.
Cliff Floyd, serving as the designated hitter, got his first hit as a Padre, a hard-hit single to right field in the second inning. He also walked and narrowly missed another hit when the Angels had a shift on his and turned a ground ball up the middle into an out.
"It felt good. I felt like a new man up there," said Floyd, who was 0-for-6 as a pinch-hitter before Friday.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
