Padres Beaten By L.A.

Offense Wastes A Tremendous Start By Ian Kennedy

They say you have to hit rock bottom in order to rise again.

If Saturday night at Dodger Stadium was not rock bottom for the Padres offense, I'm terrified to think what rock bottom looks like.

The Padres lost 1-0. It felt even worse than getting no-hit by Tim Lincecum (again). At least Lincecum is a two-time Cy Young winner who is not what he used to be, but still an effective big league starter.

Los Angeles did not have injured starter Josh Beckett, so manager Don Mattingly went with lefty Paul Maholm.

The same Paul Maholm who lost his starting job in May after getting shelled by the Marlins and had not worked more than 2.0 innings in any of his previous 14 appearances.

Paul Maholm needed a mere 65 pitches to throw 6.0 innings of shutout baseball at the Padres, who either didn't want to try, or were not able, to work deep counts against a guy who hasn't stretched out in two months. The only two hits Maholm gave up were singles by Chase Headley.

It was a shame because, once again, Ian Kennedy's stellar start was wasted. Kennedy tossed 8.0 shutout innings, striking out eight, but took a no-decision.

In the 9th inning, Kevin Quackenbush gave up a leadoff double to Adrian Gonzalez. A pair of walks (one intentional) later, A.J. Ellis hit a sacrifice fly to score Gonzalez with the only run of the game.

Tyson Ross tries to salvage a series split on Sunday against Hyun-jin Ryu.

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