Norris homers, doubles; Padres win in Arizona 8-4
PHOENIX (AP) -- With their victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the San Diego Padres are close to pulling out of the cellar in the NL West.
Derek Norris drove in three runs with a home run and a double before leaving with an injury and the Padres handed the Diamondbacks yet another home loss 8-4 on Monday night.
The Padres' Yangervis Solarte added a two-run homer and Luis Perdomo (3-3) pitched six solid innings to get the victory. The 23-year-old right-hander, in his sixth start, allowed three runs on nine hits, striking out five with no walks. He pitched to one batter in the seventh.
Manager Andy Green said the only time Perdomo got into trouble was when he abandoned his sinker.
"If we can get him to throw a sinker 95 percent of the time, he's not going to get hit," Green said, "(but) he starts to believe he's got to pitch like everybody else, that he's got to flip sliders in to punch guys out and doesn.t"
Norris, the team's catcher, left in the eighth inning when he was struck in the arm by a bat on the follow-through by hitter Brandon Drury.
"I think he's going to be fine," Green said. "He's going to get an X-ray to check just to make sure that everything's good. It caught him on that nerve, the funnybone. He just couldn't get feeling back."
Norris' two-run homer off Archie Bradley (3-4) in the sixth put the Padres up for good. Bradley, starting in place of injured Zack Greinke, went six innings, giving up five runs on six hits as Arizona fell to 14-31 at home, second-worst in the National League.
"We are just not playing winning baseball right now," Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said. "That is what it boils down to. `'
Solarte homered for the third time at Chase Field this season.
"The balls go out here," he said. "It's not necessarily my focus. I'm just trying to make good contact. I know I can hit balls out, but that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to square balls up and thankfully the balls have been going out."
Jake Lamb had an RBI triple and Paul Goldschmidt a run-scoring double for the Diamondbacks, who fell into a virtual tie with the Padres for last place in the NL West.
Norris, 1-for-13 in San Diego's just-completed home stand, got the green light on a 3-0 pitch and sent it into the left field seats, a two-run homer with two outs in the sixth that gave the Padres their first lead, 5-3. Norris and Ryan Schimpf, batting .132 entering the game, added RBI doubles off reliever Daniel Hudson in San Diego's three-run eighth.
Arizona went ahead 3-2 when Lamb poked the ball down the right field line for an RBI triple.
The lead didn't last long. Bradley walked Wil Myers to start the sixth, Matt Kemp doubled to deep left-center and it was 3-3 to set up Norris' home run.
Arizona took a 2-0 lead in the first. One run scored on Goldschmidt's double, the other on a throwing error by the third baseman Solarte.
He made up for it in the fourth, following Kemp's single with a home run into the right field seats to tie it at 2-2.
EXPERIMENT OVER
The Peter O'Brien experiment is over, at least for now. The team optioned him back to Triple-A Reno on Monday. The big outfielder was tearing up the Pacific Coast League -- batting .356 with 17 homers and 52 RBIs. But major league pitching often baffled him, especially the off-speed stuff.
O'Brien appeared in 21 games with the Diamondbacks, batting .123 with four homers but 25 strikeouts in 60 plate appearances. O'Brien struck out with the tying run on third to end Sunday's 5-4, 11-inning loss to San Francisco.
Shortstop Nick Ahmed was activated from the paternity list and took O'Brien's roster spot.
UP NEXT
Padres: Lefty Christian Friedrich (4-3, 3.96 ERA) makes his 10th start of the season.
Diamondbacks: RHP Zack Godley (1-0, 4.35) will be called up from Triple-A Reno again to make his second start of the season
