Padres Gaining in Chase for Second Place

Gary Sheffield hit his 31st home run of the season Sunday to help rookie Frank Seminara and the Padres beat the Reds, 3-1, at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in a battle for second place in the NL West.

Seminara (8-3) allowed one run and four hits over six innings in sending the Reds to their 12th loss in the past 18 games. Cincinnati fell 10 1/2 games behind Atlanta, its largest deficit of the season. The Padres trail the Braves by 11 games.

Rich Rodriguez and Jeremy Hernandez eached pitched one inning before Randy Myers got the last three outs for his 34th save.

Seminara improved to 3-0 in his last five starts, interrupted by a two-week stay with triple-A Las Vegas that resulted when the Padres activated Greg Harris from the disabled list on Aug. 22.

The Reds scored in the sixth when Dave Martinez tripled and came home on a groundout by Hal Morris to cut their deficit to 2-1.

The Padres came back with a run in their half of the inning as pinch-runner Paul Faries scored from third on a sacrifice bunt by pinch-hitter Phil Stephenson off loser Bobby Ayala (0-1).

Sheffield opened the scoring in the third with a drive over the left-center field wall, and with two outs, the Padres added another run on Jerald Clark’s RBI double.