San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Will Venable fell a double short of the cycle, as the San Diego Padres clobbered the Atlanta Braves, 17-2, in the Padres' home opener at Petco Park.
Padres Blast Braves For 17 Runs, In Pitcher-Friendly Petco Park
Venable went 3-for-5 with a triple, two-run homer and four runs scored; Kyle Blanks was 3-for-6 with a three-run homer, five RBI and three runs scored; and Tony Gwynn Jr. added three RBI for the Padres, who had dropped three of four.
Kevin Correia (1-1) benefited from the run support and earned the win after giving up two runs on four hits with four walks and three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.
Troy Glaus and Jason Heyward had an RBI each for the Braves, who have lost four of five. Jair Jurrjens (0-1) was tagged for a career-worst eight runs on eight hits with two walks over 3 1/3 innings in the start.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the second when Venable hit a one-out triple and scored on Nick Hundley's infield single.
San Diego blew the game wide open in the fourth with 10 runs.
With the bases loaded, Gwynn forced home the first run with a walk, and Correia followed with a bloop single to right to chase home two more. Everth Cabrera then hit a grounder to second that scored Gwynn, and David Eckstein then flied out for the first out of the inning. A ground-rule double from Adrian Gonzalez brought home Correia and chased Jurrjens from the game.
Jo-Jo Reyes took over on the mound and gave up a two-run single to Blanks, and Chase Headley followed with a single to bring home Blanks after an error on catcher Brian McCann. Venable then capped the scoring in the frame with a two- run blast to center for an 11-0 lead.
Blanks smacked a three-run homer in the fifth to make it a 14-0 game.
Atlanta got on the board in the sixth, as Glaus hit an RBI single and Heyward later worked a bases loaded walk to force home a run and make it a 14-2 game.
An RBI single from Hundley was followed by a two-run double from Gwynn in the seventh for a 17-2 game.
The Padres have never had a player hit for the cycle...The Padres had scored 22 runs over their first six games coming into the contest...San Diego’s team record for runs scored in a game is 20 on July 27, 1996 against Florida...Reyes was charged with nine runs on 10 hits over 3 1/3 innings...These teams split six games last season...Every Padre starter, including Correia, had at least a hit and a run scored, while Eckstein was the only starter without an RBI.
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