Padres hit Moyer hard, drop Phillies

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Count the Phillies' Ryan Howard among those awe-struck by San Diego pitcher Chris Young.

"He's 6-10," the big Philadelphia slugger said. "By the time he winds up and throws he's like, half way to the plate."

Young pitched six effective innings and Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer, helping the Padres beat the Phillies 4-2 Wednesday night.

After giving up a two-run homer to Chase Utley in the first, Young (2-2) kept the Phillies off balance with a variety of pitches, allowing three hits over his last five innings. He struck out six and walked three to help the Padres win for the second time in nine games.

"When he needed to make a pitch he made the pitch," said Padres manager Bud Black. "The Phils threatened a couple times and [Young] made the pitch to halt them."

Joe Thatcher and Heath Bell each pitched a scoreless inning and Trevor Hoffman got his fifth save in seven opportunities with a scoreless ninth.

Gonzalez's two-run shot gave San Diego a 2-0 lead in the first. It was his third homer and fourth hit in 10 at-bats against Jamie Moyer (1-2), who gave up nine hits and four runs in 5 1/3 shaky innings.

Utley, who leads the league in homers (11), extra-base hits (21) and slugging, is a big reason why the Phillies went 15-12 in April, their best start since 2003. And that without Jimmy Rollins, who's been on the disabled list since April 20 with a sprained ankle.

Utley has reached base in 21 straight games, and is hitting .411 with eight homers and 14 RBIs in his last 14 games.

"He's the best hitter in baseball right now," Young said of Utley. "If your gonna give up hits, you're better off giving them up to the best."

While the Phillies try to keep pace with the surprising Florida Marlins and dangerous New York Mets in the NL East, the Padres wrapped up a miserable April at 11-17 -- a full nine games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks (20-8), who have the best record in baseball in the West.

"It's not where you start, its where you finish," Moyer said. "I'm not comfortable, but we haven't dug a whole for ourselves."

Kevin Kouzmanoff put the Padres ahead 3-2 in the third with his second homer of the year and Tadahito Iguchi added an RBI single in the sixth.

The Padres left 14 runners stranded on base but managed a dozen hits in a breakout game for a struggling offense. The Padres came into the game last in the NL in batting average at .225.

"Hopefully we can build on tonight. We played pretty solid." Young said. "It was great job by the hitters and our defense is probably our strength right now."

Game notes
Iguchi wound up with four hits against his former team. It was his first four-hit game since July 16, 2006, at Yankee Stadium while with the White Sox. ... Bud Black won his 100th game as manager of the Padres. ... Philadelphia wore green caps in the field to represent the team's commitment to the environment. ... Pat Burrell has reached base safely in 26 straight games.