Odrisamer Despaigne pitched seven strong innings to help the San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Despaigne (1-0) kept the Diamondbacks off-balance with an array of pitches from various arm angles. He allowed one run, two hits, two walks and one hit batter. He struck out three and at one point retired 10 straight batters. He was starting for the first time this season in place of the injured Ian Kennedy.
Jeremy Hellickson (0-2), who settled down after a rocky first inning, lost in his first start at Petco Park.
Despaigne was effective at Petco last year and proved it again against the Diamondbacks. Last season he was 3-1 with a 1.69 ERA in eight home starts.
His velocity on Tuesday ranged from in the 60s to the 90s as he kept Arizona guessing at what would come next.
The Padres went ahead 5-1 in the seventh inning when Matt Kemp tripled, his second hit of the game, and scored on a wild pitch. Justin Upton's fifth-inning home run into the second deck of the left-field seats extended the Padres lead to 4-1 and his hitting streak to nine games.
Arizona, which only had three hits, threatened with one out in the fourth when Despaigne hit David Peralta with a pitch and Mark Trumbo followed with a booming double to left-center. But second baseman Yangervis Solarte made a diving stop on a groundball up the middle by Jake Lamb for an out and Tuffy Gosewisch popped up to Derek Norris in foul territory.
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Kemp sandwiched a single between walks to Solarte and Yonder Alonso (intentional) in the third inning. But Will Middlebrooks flew out to retire the side.
The Padres struck early, scoring three runs in the first inning as Hellickson struggled with his command.
Wil Myers opened with a double, followed by Solarte's infield single. Kemp drove in Myers on a fielder's choice and Upton walked. Norris' double scored Kemp and Upton got home on Alonso's RBI groundout.
