SAN DIEGO – Justin Upton made Petco Park look small.
Upton drove in all three runs on two home runs, including a two-run shot off Jake Peavy, to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 3-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night.
The spacious outfield in the downtown ballpark is usually a place where fly balls go to die, and the dimensions have gotten into the heads of Padres sluggers since it opened in 2004.
“It’s definitely an intimidating park,” Upton said after extending his hitting streak to 13 games. “Even during BP you hit some balls pretty good and they don’t leave. . . . You never look at coming here and hitting homers.”
Interestingly enough, it was the first career multihomer game for Upton, who has six homers and 14 RBIs in his past 13 games.
“I was going up there just trying to barrel-up some balls, maybe hit gap, and mess up and hit two homers,” he chuckled. “It was pretty cool.”
The Arizona right fielder also threw out Henry Blanco trying to score on David Eckstein’s fly ball to end the fifth.
This was a matchup of teams with two of the worst batting averages in the major leagues. Arizona was last at .226 and the Padres were third-worst at .239.
With John Garland and two relievers combining on a five-hitter, Arizona snapped a three-game losing streak. San Diego has lost seven of its last eight.
Peavy (2-4) struck out 12 but lost his third straight decision.
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Next up
Thursday: Arizona (Harren 3-3) at San Diego (Young 2-1), 12:35 p.m., TV: FSNA Radio: 1490 AM