San Diego, CA – Ian Kennedy made a great first impression with his new team by pitching well against his original one.
The recently acquired right-hander took a shutout into the sixth inning in his San Diego debut to help the Padres post a historic 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees at Petco Park.
Kennedy (4-8), a former first-round pick of the Yankees who was dealt to San Diego by Arizona at Wednesday's deadline, was touched for a pair of runs before departing with two outs in the sixth. He still gave up just four hits and struck out six to end a personal 10-start winless streak and lead the Padres to their first-ever series triumph over New York.
"A lot of things going on, first start against my old team that drafted me, there was a lot into it," said Kennedy. "It helped that the offense just carried me all the way through."
Everth Cabrera went 2-for-5 with a two-run single in what's expected to be his final game before being handed a league suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, while Mark Kotsay also had a pair of RBI in San Diego's sixth win in eight games.
The Padres roughed up Phil Hughes (4-10), Kennedy's onetime Yankee teammate in the minors and majors, for five runs on six hits before the struggling hurler was yanked after only 2 2/3 innings.
"He has to make better pitches," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi about Hughes. "At times we've seen him do it, it's just a consistency thing and that's what pitching is about. Consistently making good pitches."
Austin Romine finished 2-for-3 with a solo home run for New York, while Curtis Granderson and Lyle Overbay each delivered RBI singles in defeat.
While Kennedy had little trouble navigating the first time through the Yankee lineup, Hughes endured a difficult bottom of the second inning that began with consecutive singles by Will Venable and Chris Denorfia that placed runners at the corners for Kotsay, who plated Venable with a fly ball to center for a 1-0 Padres lead.
Nick Hundley then drew a walk and Kennedy pushed both runners over with a sacrifice to set up Cabrera's hard single to right that extended the margin to 3-0.
San Diego threatened again in the third, loading the bases with one out on a single and two Hughes walks before Denorfia drove in a run with a sac fly. Kotsay followed with a single up the middle that made the score 5-0 and sent Hughes to the showers.
Kennedy, on the other hand, yielded just two singles and a pair of walks over the opening five innings, though he would run into trouble in the sixth despite recording two quick outs to begin the frame.
The right-hander lost his command afterward, issuing walks to Robinson Cano and Alfonso Soriano in front of Granderson's run-scoring single off first baseman Yonder Alonso's glove. Overbay added a base hit of his own that pulled the Yankees within 6-2 and ended Kennedy's afternoon.
New York inched closer on Romine's first career major league homer, a blast off Dale Thayer in the top of the seventh, then got the tying run to the plate in the ninth after Eduardo Nunez singled against Huston Street and Romine worked a one-out walk.
Street was able to strike out both Brent Lillibridge and Vernon Wells, though, and nail down his 21st save of the year.
Game Notes
The Padres had lost each of their three previous regular-season series with the Yankees and entered Sunday's clash 3-12 lifetime against New York counting the Yanks' sweep of the 1998 World Series ... Kennedy had gone 0-5 in his last 10 assignments with the Diamondbacks since besting the Chicago Cubs on June 1 ... San Diego has now won four consecutive series for the first time since Sept. 3-16 of last season ... Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was held out for a second straight day while dealing with a sore right calf ... Alonso had a seven-game hitting streak snapped after going 0-for-4.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.