Padres down Reds after 18 innings
The lights were on and the sun was going down when Adrian Gonzalez hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 18th inning to give the San Diego Padres a 12-9 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday in San Diego.
It was the fourth time the Padres played at least 13 innings this season. They played a 22-inning game at home against Colorado on April 17-18, losing 2-1.
The last team to play a game of at least 22 and 17 innings in the same season was the 1989 Los Angeles Dodgers, who played two 22-inning games and a 17-inning game.
Scott Hairston started the winning rally with a one-out walk off Edinson Volquez (7-2), the second starting pitcher the Reds put on the mound in extra innings. Brian Giles reached on first baseman Joey Votto’s two-out throwing error, moving Hairston to third. Gonzalez then hit a full-count pitch over the fence in straightaway center field for his 14th homer.
The game lasted 5 hours, 57 minutes. It was the third-longest game in Reds history.
Josh Banks (1-0) scattered five hits over six innings for the win.
Paul Bako, the Reds’ last position player, pinch-hit for Aaron Harang and struck out with the bases loaded to end the top of the 17th.
The Padres struck out 19 times, giving them 58 in the four-game series.
The Reds used three starting pitchers in extra innings.
With no relievers left, Harang, the starter and loser in the series opener on Thursday night, came on to start the 13th. He struck out nine in four innings in the fourth relief appearance of his career.
The Reds went ahead three times in the late innings. The Padres tied it each time, twice on homers.
Clearing the bases
Joba Chamberlain‘s next step on the road to the rotation will “probably” come Wednesday in Baltimore, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Chamberlain threw 40 pitches Saturday in his second stretch-out outing and is set to ramp it up to 55. … The Philadelphia-Houston game was delayed when plate umpire Jerry Crawford was struck in the head by Carlos Lee‘s bat. He was taken to a hospital for tests but didn’t need stitches and was back at the ballpark before the game ended with an ice pack on his head.