Padres’ Hamilton Has Four-Hitter

Joey Hamilton is more than willing to trade a little back pain for a victory.

“I don’t know if it helps,” said Hamilton, who held San Francisco to four hits in seven innings in the San Diego Padres’ 4-2 victory over the Giants on Saturday night. “But if that’s the case, I’ll stick with it.”

Hamilton (5-7) won his second consecutive start after a six-game losing streak. He gave up four walks and had one strikeout.

“I threw more off-speed stuff,” he said. “Normally, I’m aggressive with my fastball. I threw a little backward this time. To do that and be effective is a boost, but it’s not something that I’ll do every time.”

The Padres have won six in a row to open a two-game lead in the NL West over the Giants, who have dropped three in a row after an 11-game winning streak.

“You try to take every series that you can,” Padre Manager Bruce Bochy said. “Sure, it’s nice to take a couple here. But we have a lot of baseball left.”

Roberto Ramirez and Dan Miceli combined to pitch a scoreless eighth, and Trevor Hoffman got the final three outs for his 19th save.

Carlos Hernandez broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run, two-out single in the third. He had one hit in his previous 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“In a tight series like this, usually the team that gets the clutch two-out hits is going to win,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said. “They got those clutch, two-out hits.

“We’ve lost two tough games. Now we’ve got to get the game Sunday and get out of here.”

The Padres opened the scoring in the first on Wally Joyner’s two-out, two-run double off Mark Gardner (5-3).

San Francisco’s Rich Aurilia had a two-out RBI single in the second after two consecutive walks, and the Giants tied it in the third on Charlie Hayes’ RBI groundout.

With a crowd of 54,390 on hand for San Diego’s second consecutive sellout, the Padres improved to 6-0 this season before home crowds of at least 50,000.

San Diego outfielder Tony Gwynn was not in the starting lineup for the fourth consecutive game since leaving Monday’s game because of a strained left calf.

Gwynn, who hit a sacrifice fly as a pinch hitter Friday, said he didn’t feel comfortable running before Saturday’s game, but that he might be ready to start today.