Paul Goldschmidt’s big night not enough as D-backs fall to Padres

SAN DIEGO — Christian Villanueva had a walk-off pinch-hit single in the ninth inning, and the San Diego Padres ended a five-game skid with a 7-6 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.

Travis Jankowski led off the ninth with a walk against Andrew Chafin (1-4) and advanced to second on a groundout by Eric Hosmer. Yoshihisa Hirano replaced Chafin and intentionally walked Hunter Renfroe.

Villanueva hit for Craig Stammen (6-2) and drove a 2-2 pitch into left field to score Jankowski and give San Diego its first win against Arizona at Petco Park this season. Stammen worked two scoreless innings.

Paul Goldschmidt had four hits and drove in four runs while tying a D-backs record by reaching base safely in nine straight plate appearances. Goldschmidt also extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

“Paul’s Paul and it’s almost amazing his average is getting close to .300,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said after the game. “It’s been a steady climb with consistent at-bats and just Paul doing the thing that he’s done all of his career.”

The D-backs’ three-game winning streak ended, and their NL West lead over the Colorado Rockies fell to one-half game.

Arizona built an early lead thanks to doubles by A.J. Pollock and Eduardo Escobar. Goldschmidt singled to give the D-backs a 2-0 advantage, a familiar position for a team that leads the majors in first-inning runs with 107.

San Diego evened the score in the fourth with a three-run inning. Goldschmidt doubled home Escobar in the fifth to build a 5-3 lead.

The Padres answered with three more runs in the fifth. Cory Spangenberg’s single gave San Diego its first lead of the series at 6-5.

Goldschmidt struck again in the seventh after another double by Pollack, singling against Phil Maton to tie the game.

Both starters struggled. Arizona’s Zack Godley allowed six runs on eight hits in five innings. Clayton Richard went five for the Padres, allowing five runs on nine hits.

“I felt like [Godley] deserved the chance to continue pitching and even though he had struggled for the fourth and the fifth inning, I thought the pitch sequencing could have been a little bit better,” Lovullo said of the starting pitcher.

“I felt like he could make pitches and get out of some jams. I didn’t want to take him out of the game until it was the right time.”

UP NEXT

D-backs: RHP Zack Greinke (12-8, 3.00 ERA) looks to continue his dominance of the Padres in the finale of the four-game series. Greinke is 11-2 with a 2.10 ERA in his career against San Diego.

Padres: RHP Brett Kennedy (0-2, 11.00) will make his third career start. In his previous outing, he allowed five runs in five innings against the Los Angeles Angels.