Padres Come Back With Three Ninth-Inning Runs

Wiki Gonzalez’s chopper past a drawn-in infield drove in the winning run with one out in the ninth for the San Diego Padres, who rallied from two runs down to beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-7, Friday night.

The rally made a winner of Matt Whiteside (1-0), who gave up 13 earned runs and 12 hits in his first two appearances this season in 18-2 and 15-1 losses at Philadelphia earlier this week.

The first three Padres reached base in the ninth off Bob Wickman (3-6), and all three scored. Wickman was trying to save a victory for starter Cal Eldred, who hadn’t won in eight starts.

Wickman gave up a single to Quilvio Veras and walked Tony Gwynn and Reggie Sanders. Wally Joyner’s one-out walk forced in the first run.

Wickman then knocked down Ben Davis’ comebacker, but his throw home pulled catcher Charlie Greene off the plate, allowing Gwynn to score on the error. Gonzalez followed with his winning single.

Sanders homered, tripled, walked three times and drove in four runs. Gwynn singled twice to push his hit total to 3,024, passing Lou Brock into 19th place on the all-time list.