GREG MADDUX AND THE PADRES
Friday was Greg Maddux night; the 41 year old clocked his 343rd career game and recorded his 20th consecutive season with at least ten wins. On the night the padres padres were hot, the offence was firing on all cylinders and Maddux pitched beautifully. The Padres’ piped the phillies phillies to a three game lead in the National League Wild Card race after winning Friday’s game. In the fourth, Phillies Carlos Ruiz attempted to smash up a likely double play; he slid hard into 2nd baseman Marcus Giles. Giles was taken out by Ruiz, and the 2 players exchanged words. Bill Welke, the Second-base umpire ruled it a double play with hindrance from Ruiz. The padres trailed by 3 to 2 in the fifth, Milton Bradley fired a 3 run home run to left field and Adrian Gonzalez followed with a huge shot to center, for his 2nd homer of the game, bring his tally to 23 this season. In the ninth Bradley added another 3-run shot to end the game with 6 RBIs. The phillies went down 14-3 thanks to big hitting by the padres. The padres had a season high 22 hits, Adrian Gonzalez had his second multi homer game this season, Josh Bard went five for six and Kevin Kouzmanoff had a career-high 4 hits.