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Sports

Bell blows save, Padres pick him up to sweep Marlins

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

San Diego, CA – Trevor Hoffman, the all-time saves leader, knows how Heath Bell and other closers feel when they fail to preserve a lead.

Bell faltered in the bottom of the ninth Sunday, allowing a game-tying home run to Mike Cameron after retiring the first two batters on groundouts. Bell's fourth blown save of the season just happened to occur on the same day the club retired Hoffman's No. 51 in a pre-game ceremony at Petco Park.

The All-Star closer gave up two more hits before intentionally walking Greg Dobbs to the load the bases for John Buck, who lofted a sacrifice fly as a pinch-hitter in the eighth to trim Florida's deficit to 3-2. Bell (3-4) recovered to strike Buck out on three pitches.

Nick Hundley opened the bottom of the ninth with a triple. After Edward Mujica (8-5) intentionally walked Logan Forsythe and Alberto Gonzalez, Will Venable lined a single off Michael Dunn to right field to complete San Diego's first- ever season sweep of the Marlins with a 4-3 victory.

Florida had given up at least one run to the Padres in the first inning of the previous six meetings this year and the trend continued Sunday.

Venable led off by crushing the third pitch from Marlins starter Anibal Sanchez over the right-field wall for his fifth home run. After Cameron Maybin drew a walk, Sanchez gave up consecutive two-out hits to Orlando Hudson, a single, and Kyle Blanks, who extended the lead to 3-0 with a two-run double to the left-center gap.

San Diego starter Cory Luebke retired the first 11 batters before Mike Stanton drove his 30th home run to left field.

Game Notes

The Padres outscored the Marlins 48-14 this season...Florida was swept in a four-game series for a club-record fourth time in 2011...Hoffman became the fifth Padre to have his number retired. He joined Steve Garvey, Randy Jones, Tony Gwynn and Dave Winfield...The Marlins fell to 2-15 in their last 17 games...Luebke gave up three hits and recorded eight strikeouts in six innings...Sanchez allowed six hits over five frames.