San Diego came in to tonight's game with the worst offense in the National League, but you couldn't tell watching this game.
The Padres got the scoring going in the second inning off Braves starter Derek Lowe. Anthony Rizzo doubled to start the frame, and advanced to third on a ground-out from Cameron Maybin. Nick Hundley then lined a one-out single past a pulled in infield to left, allowing Rizzo to score and give the Padres an early 1-0 lead.
San Diego continued in the bottom of the third, as Will Venable beat out a grounder to Alex Gonzalez to begin the inning. He then stole second even though the Braves pitched out on the play. Jason Bartlett advanced him to third on a fly ball to right field and then Lowe walked Orlando Hudson to put runners on first and third.
Ryan Ludwick hit a grounder to shortstop, and the Braves got the out at second but Ludwick beat the throw to first which allowed Venable to come in and make it a 2-0 lead for San Diego.
The rest of the miserable details after the jump
That would be all of the scoring until the sixth inning, where the Padres again added to their lead. Rizzo continued his good night at the plate with a two-out double off Lowe. Rizzo's ball just got over the out-stretched glove of Jason Heyward in deep right . Maybin singled to put runners on first and third with two outs. Nick Hundley walked to load the bases for Alberto Gonzalez, who singled to right field, bringing in Rizzo and Maybin to up the lead to 4-0.
Pitcher Tim Stauffer helped himself out with a single past a diving Alex Gonzalez to plate Hundley and make it a 5-0 game.
That would the end the night for Lowe, who finished with a line of 5.2 innings pitched, eight hits, five runs (all earned) while walking two and striking out three. George Sherrill came in and recorded the final out of the inning.
Atlanta got their only runs of the night in the seventh inning. Jason Heyward singled to start the inning and ended Stauffer's streak of 16 Braves batters set down in a row. Stauffer struck out Chipper and Brian McCann flew out to deep center to bring Freddie Freeman to the plate with two outs. Freeman crushed a homer to dead center to cut the lead to 5-2.
Stauffer was fantastic on the mound for San Diego, with the Freeman homer his only mishap. He pitched seven innings, allowing only four hits and two runs (both earned) while walking none and striking out a career high nine batters. He dominated Atlanta all night as they couldn't get anything going besides the Freeman blast.
Jairo Ascensio came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh for Atlanta and he got absolutely rocked. Hudson singled with one out, and scored on a double from Ludwick that bounced off the top of the left-center field fence to make it 6-2.
The Braves walked Rizzo to get to Maybin, who promptly crushed a triple to left-center that scored Ludwick and Rizzo to give San Diego an 8-2 lead. After striking out Hundley to get the second out of the inning, Alberto Gonzalez grounded to Dan Uggla at second. Uggla's throw was in the dirt and Freeman couldn't come up with it, allowing Gonzalez to reach and for Maybin to score on the play.
Uggla was given an error on the play as San Diego increased the Braves deficit to 9-2. Pinch hitter Jesus Guzman, hitting for Stauffer, crushed his first major league home run to left on the first pitch he saw from Ascensio. Guzman's two-run shot made it 11-2 and Ascensio was mercifully pulled from the game.
That was all the scoring for the night. Padres rookie Josh Spence made his major league debut and pitched a scoreless ninth to end the game.
WP: Tim Stauffer
LP: Derek Lowe
Up next: Jair Jurrjens faces off against Dustin Moseley tomorrow night at 8:35 PM EDT as Atlanta tries to recover from this abomination of a game.