Padres bullpen blows lead against Dodgers

Padres bullpen blows lead against Dodgers

Published Sep. 3, 2012 8:57 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Chase Headley kept up his torrid hitting and Andrew Werner pitched six strong innings. Neither was enough to hold off the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Headley drove in all three San Diego runs in a 4-3 loss in 11 innings on Monday night, the Padres' third straight defeat. A day earlier, Headley had six RBIs and Alexi Amarista had five hits, but Amarista was hitless in four at-bats against the Dodgers.

Werner allowed two runs on five hits, struck out a career-high eight and walked one in his third major league start. The 25-year-old left-hander also picked up his first career hit with a single in the seventh, when pinch-runner Clayton Richard scored the go-ahead run.

But A.J. Ellis singled in the winning run off Cory Burns (0-1) in the bottom of the 11th after two-out singles by Andre Ethier and Luis Cruz, who had a career-high four hits for the Dodgers.

"That's definitely a tough lineup, but it was a lot of fun facing them," Werner said. "Those are the guys you watch all the time on TV, so those are the guys you want to face. You want to face the best and see how you stack up. I threw them a little bit of everything just to keep them off-balance. I didn't throw them any fastballs, just off-speed stuff. I got ahead early and got two strikes, I think, almost every at-bat against them."

Werner got the Padres' rally started in the seventh with the one-out single. After Everth Cabrera flied out to center, pinch-hitter Logan Forsythe singled off the pitching hand of Dodgers lefty Randy Choate, who promptly left the game.

Choate was replaced by Belisario, who gave up a two-out single to Headley that scored Richard, the scheduled starter for Wednesday's series finale, to give San Diego a 3-2 lead.

Padres manager Bud Black said he used Richard on the basepaths because "I didn't feel real comfortable with (Werner's) foot speed in case Chase got a base hit. I still liked the way Andrew was throwing, and he probably had one more inning in him. But if Chase gets a base hit and we can't score there, that would have been a tough one to live with."

Ethier tied the game 3-all with his 16th homer off Luke Gregerson with one out in the bottom of the ninth.

"I don't feel like I missed with that pitch or that I hung it or anything," Gregerson said. "I thought I put that pitch exactly where I wanted it -- right on the outside edge of the plate and at his knees, but he just went out there and got it and put a good swing on it. That shows what he can do."

Brandon League (1-1) got the win with two innings of relief. He gave up one hit, struck out two and walked one.

Hanley Ramirez homered with two outs in the sixth on the first pitch from Werner to tie the game at 2.

Headley's 24th homer in the first gave San Diego a 2-0 lead. The Dodgers gained a run back in the fifth on Mark Ellis' RBI single that scored Cruz, who singled, was sacrificed to second and scored when catcher John Baker couldn't secure the throw from left fielder Chris Denorfia in his glove.

Dodgers starter Joe Blanton gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings, struck out six and walked two. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by striking out Cabrera to end the inning.

NOTES: Padres LF Carlos Quentin was a late scratch from the lineup with right knee irritation, with Denorfia starting in his place. Quentin pinch-hit in the 11th. ... Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has set his rotation for the team's weekend games at San Francisco. RHP Josh Beckett will start Friday, followed by LHP Chris Capuano on Saturday and LHP Clayton Kershaw on Sunday. ... Olympic champion gymnasts Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross each threw out ceremonial first pitches, with only Maroney getting the ball to the plate on a clean throw. Later, the trio boogied on the stadium's dance cam. 

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