Ashby’s Attitude Leads to Shutout

After having rough outings in four previous appearances at Coors Field, Andy Ashby took a different approach at the hitter-friendly park Sunday.

He ignored it.

“You come in and start pitching to the ballpark and you find that you aren’t pitching to your strength and quickly find yourself out of the game,” Ashby said after leading the San Diego Padres past Colorado, 11-0.

Ashby began the day with an 8.34 earned run average in his four most recent starts at Coors Field. He did just fine this time, pitching a six-hit shutout.

“It is hard here and this is a tough place to pitch, but you have a chance if you pitch your game, throw your pitches and stay aggressive,” he said.

Ashby (8-4) pitched the first shutout at the ballpark this season. He retired Kurt Abbott on a lineout with the bases loaded to end the game.

“Andy had one of his best outings of the year,” San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy said. “After using the pen the way we did on Saturday, we needed a good outing and got a great outing.”

Phil Nevin, Reggie Sanders, Damian Jackson and George Arias all hit two-run homers as the Padres won for the 15th time in 17 games.

Ashby struck out six and walked none in his sixth career shutout and 17th complete game. He improved to 2-0 with a 1.31 ERA in three starts since missing two starts with a protruding disk.

“I thought the key today was the low pitch count for Ashby,” Colorado Manager Jim Leyland said. “We made some quick outs on a real hot day and that helped him along.”

Brian Bohanon (9-6) lasted three batters into the sixth inning and gave up six runs and 10 hits. He failed for the third consecutive time to gain his 10th win.

The Padres’ outburst marked the 27th time in 37 games at Coors this year that a team has reached double figures in runs. Colorado’s Larry Walker had his hitting streak stopped at 18 games.