Kennedy strikes out 12, Drew homers again as Arizona pummels Pads 11-5

Kennedy strikes out 12, Arizona pummels Pads 11-5

SAN DIEGO — Ian Kennedy struck out a career-high 12 in a combined four-hitter while Stephen Drew finished a torrid series by hitting a three-run home run and an RBI double as the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks beat the NL West-leading San Diego Padres 11-5 on Thursday.

Coming off a start in which he allowed a career-high 10 hits in five innings, Kennedy (8-9) one-hit the Padres through seven shutout innings. After allowing Will Venable’s single to right-center with two outs in the fourth, Kennedy retired his final 10 batters, five by strikeout. He walked two in the first inning but struck out the side.

Kennedy’s previous strikeout high was nine, set in a 13-1 win again San Francisco on May 19.

The Padres trailed 11-0 going into the eighth before being spared their worst loss of the season. Adrian Gonzalez hit a grand slam off reliever Sam Demel and a run that scored on catcher Miguel Montero’s error during a rundown.

Gonzalez’s fourth career grand slam also was his 157th homer as a Padre, moving him out of a tie with Phil Nevin and into sole possession of second place on the team’s all-time list.

San Diego’s lead in the NL West dipped to six games over the idle San Francisco Giants.

Drew finished the series 7 for 14 with three homers, four doubles, six RBIs and four runs scored. The Diamondbacks avoided a sweep by winning in San Diego for the first time in nine games this year, and 10 dating to last year.

Mark Reynolds added a two-run homer, his 28th. Chris Young also drove in four runs, including a bases-clearing double in the fourth. Justin Upton and Gerardo Parra each had three hits.

Arizona did most of its damage against Kevin Correia (10-9), who allowed nine runs on nine hits in 3 1-3 innings.

Correia retired Arizona’s first two batters in the second before allowing Parra’s single and a walk to Kennedy. Drew hit Correia’s next pitch onto the top of an advertising sign on the right-field wall for a 4-0 lead. It was his 11th.

The Diamondbacks added five more in the fourth, all with one out. Drew hit an RBI double that bounced over the center-field fence, Upton had an RBI single and Kelly Johnson walked to load the bases and chase Correia. Tim Stauffer came on and allowed Young’s bases-clearing double to left-center.

With Adam LaRoche aboard on a leadoff double in the seventh, Reynolds homered to center off Stauffer.

The pummeling might have been worse had the Diamondbacks not had a big baserunning gaffe in the fifth, when they had consecutive doubles with none out but failed to score. Montero hit a leadoff double to left-center and Parra doubled off the wall in center. Montero rounded third and, as the relay throw came home, stopped about midway down the line and started back to third. Parra was heading to third, and both were caught in rundowns. Catcher Nick Hundley tagged out Montero and second baseman David Eckstein tagged out Parra.

NOTES: The Diamondbacks reached double digits for the first time in 23 games. … Padres’ six-game home winning streak was snapped. They had won 14 of 17 at home coming in. … By scoring in the eighth, the Padres were able to keep their NL-low shutout total at six. … Padres CF Chris Denorfia was helped off the field after sliding into second base on pinch-hitter Matt Stairs’ groundout.