Ian Kennedy stars for Arizona Diamondbacks in 4-1 win over San Diego Padres – MLB Update
Ian Kennedy bagged his 19th win of the season to guide the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 4-1 rout of the San Diego Padres at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday, September 8 to cement their spot as leaders in the National League West.
The Diamondbacks extended their lead to seven-games over reigning champions San Francisco Giants to diminish their chances of defending the title.
Kennedy was a sensation from the mound for Arizona as he pitched 7.2 innings for just a solitary run amid seven hits to bring his earned-run average down to 2.90 for the season. Kennedy exhibited his entire arsenal in a spell of 101 pitches to strike-out
a season-high 11 batters, inching closer to the 200-mark for the season with 178 victims so far in this campaign.
Will Venable drove in a run in the eighth inning to allow Nick Hundley a run, but this effort was a bit too late in the contest. Hundley was the only batter for the Padres to connect twice in the game, achieving this feat in four at-bats. The D-backs had
already registered a four-run lead over the struggling Padres helped by two home-runs, one each in the fourth and the sixth inning.
Paul Goldschmidt got things going for Arizona in the fourth when he pulled a loose pitch towards the left field for his seventh home-run of the season. Justin Upton then hammered one in the sixth inning in the same direction to double the lead for the Diamondbacks
and take the pressure to the visitors, who have failed to make a mark on the road this season.
Cory Luebke was reduced to 5-0 for the season after a battering by the Diamondback batters. He pitched five-plus innings and leaked two runs amid three hits which, on any other day, would have been decent figures. However, given the nature of the game, these
runs were too-expensive for the Padres and Kennedy’s precise pitching on top of it, did not allow the visitors any extra scoring chances.
Kennedy went on to score a run in the seventh inning to increase his laurels for the night before Aaron Hill added the fourth run for the West leaders in the same inning to complete the annihilation.
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