Maddux ties Rocket at 354 wins, Dodgers top Padres

[September 02, 2008]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Greg Maddux tied Roger Clemens for eighth place on the career list with his 354th victory, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Monday night.

Maddux (7-11) allowed two runs and six hits, struck out four and walked none. It was the four-time Cy Young winner's third start with the Dodgers since the Padres traded him back to Los Angeles on Aug. 19, after Brad Penny went on the disabled list with a shoulder injury.

Maddux, an eight-time All-Star, has made 736 starts compared to 707 by Clemens -- a seven-time Cy Young winner and 11-time All-Star -- and his 225 losses are 41 more than the Rocket had during his 24-year career.

The 42-year-old Maddux has 109 complete games, 35 shutouts, 3,361 strikeouts and a 3.15 career ERA over 23 seasons. Clemens had an almost identical a 3.12 lifetime ERA with 118 complete games, 46 shutouts and 4,672 strikeouts, which is third on the all-time list.

Maddux was 6-9 with a 3.99 ERA in 26 starts for San Diego this season, including a 14-game winless streak in which he was 0-5 with a a 4.48 ERA. In his first two starts after returning to the Dodgers, he gave up nine runs and 17 hits in road losses to Philadelphia and Washington.

Hong-Chih Kuo pitched two perfect innings, striking out three, and Jonathan Broxton got three outs for his 11th save

Chris Young (4-5) gave up four runs and six hits in five innings after being activated from the disabled list. The right-hander hadn't pitched since Aug. 10 at Colorado, when he left after four innings with a strain in his forearm.

The Dodgers, who trail Arizona by 2 1/2 games in the NL West, took a 3-1 lead in the second on a bloop RBI double by Angel Berroa and a run-scoring single by Maddux -- his 84th career RBI and third this season.

Casey Blake made it 4-1 in the third with , his 18th homer and seventh since coming to the Dodgers in a trade with Cleveland on July 26. Manny Ramirez added a sacrifice fly in the seventh for his 26th RBI in 30 games with Los Angeles.

San Diego second baseman Matt Antonelli, recalled from Triple-A Portland on Monday, started and went 1-for-4 in his major league debut with a single in his first plate appearance.

Notes: Maddux, just 15 2-3 innings shy of 5,000, is one of five pitchers with more than 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks (997). The others are Ferguson Jenkins, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Curt Schilling. ... Wade LeBlanc will make his big league debut Wednesday night, becoming the 13th Padres to do so -- three fewer than the club record set in 2002, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. For the next two weeks at least, LeBlanc will be part of a six-man rotation with Young, Cha Seung Baek, Shawn Estes, Josh Geer and 2007 Cy Young winner Jake Peavy. ... Padres CF Jody Gerut missed his fourth straight game. He took swings in the cage for the first time since last Wednesday, when he sprained the middle finger on his left hand while stealing a base and finished the game.

[Associated Press]

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