The 35,580 fans at Chase Field on Memorial Day were certainly entertained. The hometown Diamondbacks struck first, with a pair of second inning runs. The latter came on a crazy play as the ball hit by Cliff Pennington skirted off of third baseman Chase Headley's glove and rolled into center field. Alexi Amarista appeared to quit on the play in center, allowing Cody Ross to score all the way from first base.
Just before the top of the fifth the roof was opened and that's when the Padres bats came alive. Yonder Alonzo led off and promptly deposited a Brandon McCarthy pitch into the right center field bleachers. Five batters later Everth Cabrera hit a three-run shot down the right field line. All of the sudden the Padres led 4-2.
After running into trouble in the second inning Padres starter Tyson Ross was in command until the sixth. The first five D'back batters reached base with hits, pushing three runs across. Ross left the game trailing 5-4. Reliever Nick Vincent controlled the damage, retiring the next three batters.
The Padres tied the game in the top of the seventh on a two-out double to left of the bat of Cabrera, who had quite a night. He went 2-for-4 with four RBI.
There was no more scoring until the bottom of the ninth. With two outs and a runner on first reliever Kevin Quackenbush left a ball out over the plate. A.J. Pollock pounded 428-feet to center field to end the game.
In the 7-5 loss the Padres managed 12 hits. Game two of the series is set for 6:40 pm PDT.
