PHOENIX (AP)—Even down six runs after six innings, the Arizona
Diamondbacks thought they would find a way to win.

This time, their rally came up a bit short.

“You’d like to win them all but we didn’t today,” manager Kirk Gibson said
following the Diamondbacks’ 7-6 loss to the San Diego Padres. “We push through.
There’s a saying about playing 27 outs, playing to the end. It’s something
that’s been preached for a while. It’s part of their character.”

Henry Blanco(notes) homered and Chris Young added a two-run double for the NL
West-leading Diamondbacks, who had won a franchise-record 15 consecutive home
games. Arizona’s lead over San Francisco slipped to 8 1-2 games and the
Diamondbacks’ magic number remained eight.

Backed by LeBlanc’s one-hit pitching over the first five innings, San Diego
built a 7-0 lead against Josh Collmenter(notes) (9-9).

James Darnell(notes) drove in Nick Hundley(notes) with a single in the second, then hit a
sacrifice fly in the third. Jesus Guzman(notes) had an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo(notes)
drew a bases-loaded walk in the third to put the Padres ahead 4-0.

Hundley hit a two-run shot in the fifth for his eighth homer, giving San
Diego a 6-0 lead and ending Collmenter’s day. Guzman added a run-scoring double
in the seventh.

Then the Diamondbacks made things interesting.

Blanco, Arizona’s regular Sunday catcher, led off the sixth with a line
drive over the wall in left. Reliever Zach Duke(notes) singled to center, Gerardo Parra(notes)
reached on a one-out single and Paul Goldschmidt(notes) walked to load the bases and
chase Wade LeBlanc(notes) (3-3).

Chris Young hit a two-run double to left off Erik Hamren(notes), and Colin Cowgill
brought home Goldschmidt and Young with a single to center that trimmed San
Diego’s lead to 7-5.

“I thought we were going to pull it out again,” Young said. “Honestly, I
thought we were going to find a way to win it.”

The Diamondbacks pulled within one in the seventh when Blanco singled, went
to second when pinch-hitter Geoff Blum(notes) was hit by a pitch and scored on
pinch-hitter Justin Upton’s(notes) groundout.

“It’s been our team all year,” Collmenter said. “Up, down, we play all
the way through. It’s fun to be a part of a team like that and know that no
matter how far down you are, they’re going to battle and give you a chance to
win.”

Collmenter gave up six runs and seven hits, walked three and struck out two.

“I think I forced through some things,” Collmenter said. “I didn’t make
some big pitches when I needed to. I left some balls up over the plate today and
they were able to put the bat on.”

Hundley, Guzman and Darnell had two RBIs apiece for the Padres, who ended a
three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in seven games.

LeBlanc (3-5) went 5 2-3 innings and allowed four runs and four hits while
snapping a personal three-game losing streak.

“No one in the clubhouse is too down right now,” Young said. “We showed a
lot of fight tonight and the Padres know that.”

NOTES: The Diamondbacks have never rallied from a seven-run deficit to win.
. Arizona’s previous home loss was on August 8, a 9-1 defeat against the Houston
Astros. The Diamondbacks won the next three games of the series to begin a
seven-game winning streak. … Darnell has driven in five runs in his past two
games. . Young stole second in the second inning to reach the 20-homer,
20-stolen base plateau for the third time in his career. . The Padres dropped
their formal protest of the Diamondbacks’ 6-5, extra-inning victory on Saturday.

PHOENIX, Sept. 11 (UPI) — Nick Hundley went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer Sunday and the San Diego Padres hung on for a 7-6 victory over Arizona.

Jesus Guzman contributed two run-scoring singles and scored twice, and James Darnell added two RBI as the Padres built a 7-0 lead then turned back a Diamondbacks comeback bid.

Wade LeBlanc (3-5) earned the victory despite allowing four runs on four hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings.

Heath Bell racked up his 37th save in the ninth after the D-backs had scored six straight runs.

Henry Blanco homered, Chris Young stroked a two-run double and Collin Cowgill knocked in a pair with a single during a five-run sixth for National League West-leading Arizona, which saw its 15-game home winning streak snapped.

The D-backs’ Josh Collmenter (9-9) was roughed up for six runs on seven hits over four innings.

PHOENIX (AP)—The San Diego Padres have struggled all year long, especially
in Arizona. So this one was particularly sweet.

Nick Hundley(notes) homered and the Padres held on for a 7-6 victory Sunday that
snapped the Diamondbacks’ franchise-record home winning streak at 15 games.

Hundley, Jesus Guzman(notes) and James Darnell(notes) had two RBIs apiece for the Padres,
who ended a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in seven
games.

“Anytime you can come out of here with a win you consider it to be a good
day,” San Diego starter Wade LeBlanc(notes).

San Diego had lost seven of eight games in Arizona this season, including
the first three games of the series.

“We’ve got to stay positive,” said Heath Bell(notes), who pitched the ninth for
his 37th save in 42 chances one day after allowing two homers in the ninth. “We
could have taken three out of four. I messed up yesterday and the second game we
kinda blew it.”

LeBlanc (3-5) went 5 2-3 innings and allowed four runs and four hits while
snapping a personal three-game losing streak.

“I thought he deserved to get the win,” Padres manager Bud Black said.
“He had good efficiency, mix of pitches and changing of speeds, which all go
into Wade’s game.”

Henry Blanco(notes) homered and Chris Young added a two-run double for the NL
West-leading Diamondbacks. Arizona’s lead over the San Francisco Giants slipped
to 8 1-2 games and its magic number remained eight.

“You’d like to win them all but we didn’t today,” manager Kirk Gibson
said. “We push through. There’s a saying about playing 27 outs, playing to the
end. It’s something that’s been preached for a while. It’s part of their
character.”

Backed by LeBlanc’s one-hit pitching over the first five innings, San Diego
built a 7-0 lead against Josh Collmenter(notes) (9-9).

Darnell drove in Hundley with a single in the second, then hit a sacrifice
fly in the third. Guzman had an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo(notes) drew a bases-loaded
walk in the third to put the Padres ahead 4-0.

Hundley hit a two-run shot in the fifth for his eighth homer, giving San
Diego a 6-0 lead and ending Collmenter’s day. Guzman added a run-scoring double
in the seventh.

Then the Diamondbacks made things interesting.

Blanco, Arizona’s regular Sunday catcher, led off the sixth with a line
drive over the wall in left. Reliever Zach Duke(notes) singled to center, Gerardo Parra(notes)
reached on a one-out single and Paul Goldschmidt(notes) walked to load the bases and
chase LeBlanc.

Chris Young hit a two-run double to left off Erik Hamren(notes), and Colin Cowgill
brought home Goldschmidt and Young with a single to center that trimmed San
Diego’s lead to 7-5.

“We got it the hard way,” Black said. “It looked as though we might have
done it the easy way but it turned out to be the hard way.”

The Diamondbacks pulled within one in the seventh when Blanco singled, went
to second when pinch-hitter Geoff Blum(notes) was hit by a pitch and scored on
pinch-hitter Justin Upton’s(notes) groundout.

“It’s been our team all year,” Collmenter said. “Up, down, we play all
the way through. It’s fun to be a part of a team like that and know that no
matter how far down you are, they’re going to battle and give you a chance to
win.”

Collmenter gave up six runs and seven hits, walked three and struck out two.

“I think I forced through some things,” Collmenter said. “I didn’t make
some big pitches when I needed to. I left some balls up over the plate today and
they were able to put the bat on.”

NOTES: Arizona’s last home loss was on August 8, a 9-1 defeat against the
Houston Astros. The Diamondbacks won the next three games of the series to begin
a seven-game winning streak. … Darnell has driven in five runs in his past two
games. . Young stole second in the second inning to reach the 20-homer,
20-stolen base plateau for the third time in his career. . The Padres dropped
their formal protest of the Diamondbacks’ 6-5, extra-inning victory on Saturday.

Hundley, Jesus Guzman and James Darnell had two RBIs apiece for the Padres, who ended a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in seven games.

“Anytime you can come out of here with a win you consider it to be a good day,” San Diego starter Wade LeBlanc.

San Diego had lost seven of eight games in Arizona this season, including the first three games of the series.

“We’ve got to stay positive,” said Heath Bell, who pitched the ninth for his 37th save in 42 chances one day after allowing two homers in the ninth. “We could have taken three out of four. I messed up yesterday and the second game we kinda blew it.”

LeBlanc (3-5) went 5 2-3 innings and allowed four runs and four hits while snapping a personal three-game losing streak.

“I thought he deserved to get the win,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “He had good efficiency, mix of pitches and changing of speeds, which all go into Wade’s game.”

Henry Blanco homered and Chris Young added a two-run double for the NL West-leading Diamondbacks. Arizona’s lead over the San Francisco Giants slipped to 8 1-2 games and its magic number remained eight.

“You’d like to win them all but we didn’t today,” manager Kirk Gibson said. “We push through. There’s a saying about playing 27 outs, playing to the end. It’s something that’s been preached for a while. It’s part of their character.”

Backed by LeBlanc’s one-hit pitching over the first five innings, San Diego built a 7-0 lead against Josh Collmenter (9-9).

Darnell drove in Hundley with a single in the second, then hit a sacrifice fly in the third. Guzman had an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo drew a bases-loaded walk in the third to put the Padres ahead 4-0.

Hundley hit a two-run shot in the fifth for his eighth homer, giving San Diego a 6-0 lead and ending Collmenter’s day. Guzman added a run-scoring double in the seventh.

Then the Diamondbacks made things interesting.

Blanco, Arizona’s regular Sunday catcher, led off the sixth with a line drive over the wall in left. Reliever Zach Duke singled to center, Gerardo Parra reached on a one-out single and Paul Goldschmidt walked to load the bases and chase LeBlanc.

Chris Young hit a two-run double to left off Erik Hamren, and Colin Cowgill brought home Goldschmidt and Young with a single to center that trimmed San Diego’s lead to 7-5.

“We got it the hard way,” Black said. “It looked as though we might have done it the easy way but it turned out to be the hard way.”

The Diamondbacks pulled within one in the seventh when Blanco singled, went to second when pinch-hitter Geoff Blum was hit by a pitch and scored on pinch-hitter Justin Upton’s groundout.

“It’s been our team all year,” Collmenter said. “Up, down, we play all the way through. It’s fun to be a part of a team like that and know that no matter how far down you are, they’re going to battle and give you a chance to win.”

Collmenter gave up six runs and seven hits, walked three and struck out two.

“I think I forced through some things,” Collmenter said. “I didn’t make some big pitches when I needed to. I left some balls up over the plate today and they were able to put the bat on.”

NOTES: Arizona’s last home loss was on August 8, a 9-1 defeat against the Houston Astros. The Diamondbacks won the next three games of the series to begin a seven-game winning streak. … Darnell has driven in five runs in his past two games. . Young stole second in the second inning to reach the 20-homer, 20-stolen base plateau for the third time in his career. . The Padres dropped their formal protest of the Diamondbacks’ 6-5, extra-inning victory on Saturday.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PHOENIX (AP)—The San Diego Padres have struggled all year long, especially
in Arizona. So this one was particularly sweet.

Nick Hundley(notes) homered and the Padres held on for a 7-6 victory Sunday that
snapped the Diamondbacks’ franchise-record home winning streak at 15 games.

Hundley, Jesus Guzman(notes) and James Darnell(notes) had two RBIs apiece for the Padres,
who ended a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in seven
games.

“Anytime you can come out of here with a win you consider it to be a good
day,” San Diego starter Wade LeBlanc(notes).

San Diego had lost seven of eight games in Arizona this season, including
the first three games of the series.

“We’ve got to stay positive,” said Heath Bell(notes), who pitched the ninth for
his 37th save in 42 chances one day after allowing two homers in the ninth. “We
could have taken three out of four. I messed up yesterday and the second game we
kinda blew it.”

LeBlanc (3-5) went 5 2-3 innings and allowed four runs and four hits while
snapping a personal three-game losing streak.

“I thought he deserved to get the win,” Padres manager Bud Black said.
“He had good efficiency, mix of pitches and changing of speeds, which all go
into Wade’s game.”

Henry Blanco(notes) homered and Chris Young added a two-run double for the NL
West-leading Diamondbacks. Arizona’s lead over the San Francisco Giants slipped
to 8 1-2 games and its magic number remained eight.

“You’d like to win them all but we didn’t today,” manager Kirk Gibson
said. “We push through. There’s a saying about playing 27 outs, playing to the
end. It’s something that’s been preached for a while. It’s part of their
character.”

Backed by LeBlanc’s one-hit pitching over the first five innings, San Diego
built a 7-0 lead against Josh Collmenter(notes) (9-9).

Darnell drove in Hundley with a single in the second, then hit a sacrifice
fly in the third. Guzman had an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo(notes) drew a bases-loaded
walk in the third to put the Padres ahead 4-0.

Hundley hit a two-run shot in the fifth for his eighth homer, giving San
Diego a 6-0 lead and ending Collmenter’s day. Guzman added a run-scoring double
in the seventh.

Then the Diamondbacks made things interesting.

Blanco, Arizona’s regular Sunday catcher, led off the sixth with a line
drive over the wall in left. Reliever Zach Duke(notes) singled to center, Gerardo Parra(notes)
reached on a one-out single and Paul Goldschmidt(notes) walked to load the bases and
chase LeBlanc.

Chris Young hit a two-run double to left off Erik Hamren(notes), and Colin Cowgill
brought home Goldschmidt and Young with a single to center that trimmed San
Diego’s lead to 7-5.

“We got it the hard way,” Black said. “It looked as though we might have
done it the easy way but it turned out to be the hard way.”

The Diamondbacks pulled within one in the seventh when Blanco singled, went
to second when pinch-hitter Geoff Blum(notes) was hit by a pitch and scored on
pinch-hitter Justin Upton’s(notes) groundout.

“It’s been our team all year,” Collmenter said. “Up, down, we play all
the way through. It’s fun to be a part of a team like that and know that no
matter how far down you are, they’re going to battle and give you a chance to
win.”

Collmenter gave up six runs and seven hits, walked three and struck out two.

“I think I forced through some things,” Collmenter said. “I didn’t make
some big pitches when I needed to. I left some balls up over the plate today and
they were able to put the bat on.”

NOTES: Arizona’s last home loss was on August 8, a 9-1 defeat against the
Houston Astros. The Diamondbacks won the next three games of the series to begin
a seven-game winning streak. … Darnell has driven in five runs in his past two
games. . Young stole second in the second inning to reach the 20-homer,
20-stolen base plateau for the third time in his career. . The Padres dropped
their formal protest of the Diamondbacks’ 6-5, extra-inning victory on Saturday.

Normal for the Diamondbacks is becoming downright eerie.

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Diamondbacks-Padres series | Box score | 2001 tribute | MLB scoreboard

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Down by seven runs, their reasoning goes, the game still is within reach.

And it was Sunday, and though a 15-game winning streak at home came to an end, their comeback added a little solace to a 7-6 loss to the San Diego Padres in front of 36,369 at Chase Field. Still, even with a victory by the second-place San Francisco Giants, the Diamondbacks have an 8 1/2-game cushion in the NL West standings with 15 games remaining.

A loss never sits well, but the Diamondbacks are in a good spot entering six-game road trip before finishing the season with nine at home.

“We woke up a little bit and were able to fight back,” said center fielder Chris Young who helped trigger a five-run sixth inning. “I thought we were going to pull it out again, honestly.

“I thought we were going to find a way to win it, but a great homestand (3-1). We’ve been playing good baseball lately, and it’s been exciting.”

“Woke up,” was right on target.

Down 7-0 – with six of the runs charged to starter Josh Collmenter – the Diamondbacks got a home run from Henry Blanco and two RBIs each from Young and Collin Cowgill. The deficit was cut to one in the seventh when pinch-hitter Justin Upton drove in a run on a force-out.

In the ninth, Padres closer Heath Bell, who had been tagged for a pair of home runs in the Diamondbacks’ come-from-behind win a day earlier, allowed a walk before retiring the next three hitters.

Shortstop John McDonald, who along with second baseman Aaron Hill joined the team in late August from Toronto in the Kelly Johnson trade, likes the mind-set that manager Kirk Gibson has instilled in the team.

“It’s a lot of fun, because you know you’re never out of it,” he said. “We’re not a team that gets disappointed when we get down early. We know our pitchers are going to battle for us, and our hitters have faith that we’re going to score some runs.

“We didn’t score as many as we would have liked to today, but we could have folded it in and be happy where we’re at in the standings, got on a plane and gone on this road trip,” he said.

“But we’d play all night if we could come out with a win. I think that’s what we felt in the dugout. We felt like we were going to score at least one in the ninth, and we might win it in the 15th. . . . It’s a great feeling.”

The team adheres to Gibson’s philosophy of staying focused on the task at hand, not getting too high or too low, and it has adopted the manager’s tough approach to the game.

“I think it’s rubbed off on a lot of players,” McDonald said. “You can’t feel like you’re the best team in baseball; you can’t feel like the worst. Individually, and I think as a team, you feel that way, too, that it’s OK if we make mistakes because we’re going to come back.”

Entering the bottom of the sixth and down by seven runs often demoralizes a team. It’s in situations such as that, Young said, that a tough approach pays off.

“You just never know,” he said. We just continue to play and see what happens. We understand you’re not going to win every game, so I don’t think anybody in the clubhouse is too down right now.

“We showed a lot of fight, and the Padres know that. We played good, and I’m proud of this team.”

Diamondbacks rewind

Lackluster outing: Diamondbacks starter Josh Collmenter (9-9) did not have anywhere near his best stuff. He lasted only four-plus innings and was roughed up for six runs and seven hits. “They got on Josh,” manager Kirk Gibson said. “Just one of those days, nothing he could do, they were all over him.”

The good news on the pitching side is that the bullpen acquitted itself well. Zach Duke allowed a run in three innings, and Brad Ziegler and Ryan Cook kept San Diego off the scoreboard in the final two innings.

LeBlanc hangs on: Padres starter Wade LeBlanc pitched 5 2/3 innings, charged with four runs, and got the win to improve to 3-5. He also had two singles.

Joining the party: The off day for right fielder Justin Upton, his first since Aug. 13, lasted six innings. He had an RBI with a force-out that brought the Diamondbacks to within 7-6. Catcher Miguel Montero did get a full day’s rest on his off day.

20-20 vision: Center fielder Chris Young joined the 20-20 club for the third time in his career after he stole second base in the second inning. He hit his 20th home run of the season in Saturday’s game.

By the numbers: The Diamondbacks lead the National League with 457 extra-base hits, and their 161 home runs are tied with the Reds for most in the National League.

View from the press box

It’s easy to tell that the Diamondbacks’ intensity is the result of the aggressive, no-quit attitude instilled by manager Kirk Gibson. So it just seems like business as usual when they do the unexpected. It is no surprise to Gibson: “That’s what we expect to do. We want to push through. There’s a saying about playing 27 outs, play until the end. It’s something that’s been preached for a while, that’s just a part of their character.”

Up next: Los Angeles Dodgers

Update: The Dodgers are coming of an 8-1 loss to the Giants and are in third place in the National League West, 12 games behind the Diamondbacks. Left-hander Clayton Kershaw (18-5, 2.36), a leading candidate for the Cy Young Award, is scheduled to start Wednesday, the final game of the three-game set. Center fielder Matt Kemp drives the Dodgers’ offense, with 32 home runs, 107 RBIs and a .317 batting average.