Taking a series against a first place team on the road is hard enough. Doing it against a guy who's done something not even a future Hall of Famer has done is nearly impossible.
The first-place Diamondbacks beat the Padres 6-5 on Sunday at Chase Field.
Still, the Padres came darn close to taking two out of three from the Diamondbacks in Arizona. D-Backs starter Patrick Corbin got the win, running his record to 8-0. He's the first lefty in franchise history to start a season 8-0. Keep in mind, Randy Johnson won four Cy Young awards in Phoenix.
But, the Padres put more stress on Corbin than any team that's faced him so far.
The 23-year-old stud had not allowed more than two runs in any of his previous nine starts this year. The Padres got four runs off him. Two of those came on a long home run by Carlos Quentin, who showed signs of breaking out of a season-long slump.
Quentin also doubled, finishing the weekend 6-for-11. But another San Diego native did damage for the D-Backs.
Mount Carmel high alum Eric Chavez hit a 2-run home run off Padres starter Jason Marquis. It's the 7th HR of the season for Chavez, who's finally healthy again after six years of injury troubles.
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Tommy Layne came in to the game in the 4th inning for the ineffective Marquis. He allowed one run in 2.1 innings to take the loss.
The Padres also got a solid game from Kyle Blanks, who went 2-for-4 with a double and drove in a pair of runs. Blanks has pushed his average up to .284.
On Monday the Padres start a 2-game "series" in Seattle (I have a hard time calling 2 games a series).
