Ashby and Cianfrocco Team Up for Padres

The San Diego Padres can’t play much better than they are now, even if they do score just one measly run. That’s all they needed Monday to get off to their best start in 30 years.

Archi Cianfrocco homered in the fifth inning and Andy Ashby pitched San Diego’s first complete game of the year as the Padres defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, 1-0, at San Diego to spoil a similarly brilliant performance by Brian Anderson.

“This is a fun team to watch, and a fun team to be associated with,” Ashby said after the Padres won their eighth consecutive game to improve to 11-2.

San Diego’s previous best start was, 10-2, in 1984, the year the franchise made its only World Series appearance. The Padres’ winning streak is their longest since an 11-gamer from April 14-27, 1982.

The Padres came into Monday’s game leading the majors with 80 runs, an average of nearly seven per game.

“It’s not like we’re going out there overconfident,” Cianfrocco said. “We’re going out there having fun and playing hard. We didn’t win a lot of these one-run games last year. When you win 1-0, it gets everyone more excited than if you win 8-2. You’ve got to win the close games.”

Ashby (2-1) gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked two in his third shutout, his first since Aug. 11, 1995. It was his first complete game since taking a no-hitter into the ninth against Atlanta last Sept. 5. Relying on his sinking fastball, change-up and cut fastball, he recorded 17 groundouts.

“It’s nice to go out there and use all your pitches and feel good, just not throw the ball all over the place,” said Ashby, who spent nearly a month on the disabled list last year because of an elbow strain. “It’s fun to go out there for the ninth, especially with the way the fans are pumped up.”

“He had stuff darting all over the place,” Arizona’s Matt Williams said. “He had cutters down and in. He had it going every which way. When he’s like that, he’s going to be tough to hit.”

Anderson (1-2) gave up only three hits and got Arizona’s first complete game. He struck out five and walked none but couldn’t prevent the Diamondbacks from dropping to 2-11.

Florida 7, Pittsburgh 2--The Florida Marlins finally won for the first time in April, ending an 11-game losing streak by beating the Pirates at Pittsburgh behind rookie Derrek Lee’s second grand slam in a week.

The losing streak was the longest in the six-year-old franchise’s history and gave them the worst start ever (1-11) for a defending World Series champion.

Lee’s grand slam and Cliff Floyd’s two-run double highlighted a six-run Marlin third that helped rookie Andy Larkin (1-0) get his first major league victory. He gave up six hits and a run over six innings in his second career start.

San Francisco 8, St. Louis 2--Barry Bonds hit his first homer and Kirk Rueter pitched six scoreless innings as the Giants won at San Francisco.

Bonds lined the first pitch of the fifth inning off the scoreboard below the upper deck in right field, breaking a 59 at-bat homerless drought.

Bonds had gone 12 games this year without a homer, his longest homerless streak to start a season.

The blast also ended the Giants’ streak of six games and 227 at-bats without a homer.

Bonds added an RBI double in the first as the Giants took three out of four games from the Cardinals.

New York Mets at Milwaukee--The game was postponed by rain. The makeup date wasn’t set, but it will be during the Mets’ second and final visit to County Stadium on July 22-23.

Colorado 8, Cincinnati 4--The Colorado Rockies won their first home game this season, rallying behind Vinny Castilla’s three-run homer in the seventh and a four-run eighth at Denver.

The Rockies ended an eight-game losing streak overall, improving to 1-6 at Coors Field this year.

Dante Bichette and Greg Colbrunn each had three hits for the Rockies.

Colorado starter Jamey Wright had his most impressive outing of the year, giving up four runs and six hits in seven innings. He had given up 13 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings in his first two starts.

Philadelphia 11, Atlanta 8--Rico Brogna hit two homers and drove in five runs as the Phillies rallied from a six-run deficit at Philadelphia.

The Phillies, who trailed, 7-1, after four, scored four unearned runs in the fifth and six in the seventh, with Brogna’s three-run homer in the seventh breaking a 7-7 tie.

Philadelphia has won six of its last seven, including three of four from the Braves. It was the Phillies’ first series win over the Braves since sweeping them in a four-game series in May, 1995.

Jerry Spradlin retired all three batters he faced in the seventh for the win.