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No win for Cashner, but Pads prevail in extras

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Twenty-nine games remain in the Padres’ season, and this may seem hard to believe: Andrew Cashner just made his eighth start at Petco Park.

Of late, such an event had become exceedingly rare. Not since June 18 had the right-hander towered atop the mound where he looks and feels most at home.

Overall, he may finish the season just shy of 20 starts, limited by ailments of the elbow, shoulder and neck. And yet Friday, he served a forceful reminder.

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In the Padres’ 3-2, 12-inning triumph over the Dodgers, well before Yasmani Grandal tallied the first walk-off hit of his career, Cashner again towered atop the mound, an upper-90s fastball roaring toward the plate. For more than two months, he was a rare reason to watch a punchless club. In spite of a black hole of an offense, Cashner’s starts at Petco Park felt like something out of the ordinary.

His anticipated return delivered, even as he pitched only half of a four-hour slog. Over six innings, Cashner struck out eight. He scattered six hits and walked none.

“For the most part, I thought I was a lot sharper than I was in Arizona,” Cashner said, referencing his last start, which was also his first off the disabled list. “I thought my command was good overall, the ball was down in the zone. I thought my breaking ball was the best it’s been in a while.

“There were a few pitches I wanted back, but the defense really played well tonight.”

The few times the Dodgers managed hard contact, Cashner was fortified by an expansive venue. In the fourth, Justin Turner powered up for a deep drive to left but had to settle for a warning-track double. In the fifth, Dee Gordon hit a ball as hard as he has all year, only to watch Rymer Liriano crash into the wall in right-center, robbing the speedster of extra bases.

Cashner would be denied, too, though in another respect. In the eighth, after he had departed, Hanley Ramirez ripped a 390-foot, game-tying shot to left. Thus, Cashner remained without a win since April 16, stuck on a grand total of two victories amid 14 starts and a 2.37 earned-run average.

The dearth of support notwithstanding, he still set a record. Dating back to June 11 of last season, Cashner has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 15 consecutive starts at home. Friday, he surpassed Randy Jones for a new franchise record.

“I think the stamina and the stuff were good,” Padres manager Bud Black said of Cashner. “He’s still building his endurance back up. I’m looking forward to a good September from Cash.”

During the aforementioned 15-start stretch at Petco Park, Cashner is 4-5 with a 1.44 ERA. The active streak is the second-longest in the majors, behind Miami’s Jose Fernandez, who’d gone on a 20-game run before a torn ulnar collateral ligament felled the precocious right-hander.

Coincidentally, Fernandez’s last, unfortunate start came at Petco Park against the Padres, who need no reminder of the fragility so ubiquitous among the game’s top pitchers.

The worst was initially feared when, in mid-May, elbow soreness sent Cashner to the disabled list. He would miss three weeks before his return. His reappearance proved short-lived. Late in June, he was waylaid again. This time it was shoulder soreness, which gave way to a sore neck, that delaying his comeback until last weekend in Arizona.

In a rusty outing, Cashner contended with both pitch count and elevation, fortunate to allow no more than two runs over five innings.

Friday, a thousand feet closer to sea level, he thrived. He opened by retiring the first six batters, the last four by strikeout. He yielded an RBI double in the third, then recovered with three more scoreless innings. He walked off the field after throwing 59 of 89 pitches for strikes, after churning out a bunt single, after doing more than enough for a win. Rene Rivera’s second-inning sacrifice fly, combined with Alexi Amarista’s RBI single in the fourth, had given the Padres a 2-1 lead.

Their typically stolid bullpen, however, wavered. In the eighth, Dale Thayer left a slider over the heart of the plate. Ramirez obliged, parking the ball into the second deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building. The Dodgers shortstop, who’d suffered an apparent leg injury in the sixth, hobbled around the bases.

They were loaded, with two outs in the top of the ninth, but Kevin Quackenbush induced a grounder to escape.

In the bottom of the inning, Rivera, the hero of Wednesday’s 10-inning walk-off over the Brewers, led off with a single, but he would be stranded.

Three innings later, the Padres loaded the bases with one out. With the pull-happy Seth Smith batting, the Dodgers employed a rare, five-man infield shift, putting four defenders on the right side.

“You come to the ballpark every night,” Black said, “and you might see something new.”

The formation worked. Smith grounded to second baseman Gordon, who fired to home for one out. Attempting to complete a double play, catcher A.J. Ellis zipped the ball to first, but Smith legged out a fielder’s choice, prolonging the inning.

Up came the switch-hitting Grandal, batting from the left side, and away went the shift. Former Padres pitcher Kevin Correia worked ahead, throwing two strikes. Grandal worked back in the at-bat, drawing a full count. On the seventh pitch, he bounced a single through the right side, Yangervis Solarte danced home from third, and the Padres celebrated their second walk-off victory in as many games.

“I felt like I got squeezed a couple times tonight, but that’s baseball,” said Grandal, who has reached base safely in each of his last five games, going 6-for-19 with six RBIs. “I wasn’t going to give up on that last at-bat.”

Tim Stauffer, who entered to pitch the 12th, picked up his fifth win, getting the better of Correia in a single-frame matchup of 2011 Opening Day starters.

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