Greene's homer carries Padres over Giants in 10th

Sep 15, 2007, 5:38 GMT

San Diego, CA - Khalil Greene belted a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the San Diego Padres to 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park.

With one out in the 10th, Greene smacked the first pitch he saw from Dan Giese (0-1) into the seats in left to give the Padres a thrilling come-from-behind victory.

'To be able to come back and win it the way we did, I think is nice,' said Greene. 'Especially at this point in time when games are starting to wind down and we don't have that many left. It is still extremely close and you need to get wins and try to stay in it, and keep leading the wild card while making up ground in the division.'

Scott Hairston's solo homer and Geoff Blum's RBI double in the ninth sent the game into extra innings for San Diego, which leads Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games for the NL wild card. The Phillies defeated the Mets in extra innings earlier Friday.

Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a two-run homer for the Padres, who also trail Arizona by three games in the NL West. The Diamondbacks lost to the Dodgers in LA on Friday.

Chris Young started for San Diego and pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits to go along with five strikeouts and one walk. Trevor Hoffman (4-4) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the victory.

Kevin Frandsen and Ryan Klesko each knocked in a run for the Giants, who have lost two straight and three of their last four.

San Francisco starter Barry Zito gave up two runs on four hits in six innings while striking out four and walking three. Zito also knocked in a run.

'We had a two-run lead going into the ninth and we did what we wanted against a tough pitcher and we just couldn't hold on,' said San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy. 'That has been a big problem this year.'

The Giants scored two runs in the second to take an early lead. Barry Bonds led things off with a walk and Bengie Molina followed with a base hit. With one out, Rich Aurilia singled to center to load the bases and Frandsen's sacrifice fly plated the first run of the game. Zito then helped himself with a run-scoring single.

San Diego tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth after Kouzmanoff blasted a two- run homer to center.

With the game tied in the seventh, San Francisco grabbed the lead with two outs. Eugenio Velez, who pinch hit for Zito, tripled to right and scored as Young uncorked a wild pitch with Randy Winn at the plate to make it 3-2.

San Francisco tacked on an insurance run in the ninth on Klesko's pinch-hit run-scoring single.

Brad Hennessey started the bottom of the ninth and Hairston greeted him with a home run that just cleared the left-field wall to pull San Diego within a run. Hennessey then walked Josh Bard and a sac bunt by pinch-hitter Craig Stansberry put the game-tying run into scoring position.

Steve Kline then relieved Hennessey and the left-hander got Brian Giles to fly out to deep right. Blum, though, delivered with a double down the left-field line to plate pinch-runner Brady Clark and send the game into extra innings.

Game Notes

The Padres are 10-3 against San Francisco this season with a 6-1 mark at Petco Park...San Diego announced on Friday that Justin German will be skipped in the rotation on Monday and rookie Jack Cassell will take his place...Both teams had nine hits.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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