Despaigne's pitching lifts Padres to 4-1 win

SAN DIEGO (AP) With as many pitches Odrisamer Despainge throws, sometimes he forgets about the most basic one: a fastball.

Not Tuesday night.

Despainge leaned on it in helping the San Diego Padres to a 4-1 win over the Colorado Rockies.

By limiting his assortment of off-speed offerings he won for the first time in over a month.

''His stuff is pretty good,'' San Diego manager Bud Black said. ''He got back to stuff instead of deception.''

Despaigne pitched five-hit ball for seven innings, leading the Padres to their fourth straight win. Despaigne (3-3) struck out eight and walked two for San Diego, which has won 10 of 13.

Chris Nelson drove in two runs in the eighth inning for the Padres.

Alexi Amarista and Abraham Almonte also drove in runs. Yasmani Grandal had two of the Padres' six hits.

The Padres fielded a starting lineup with seven players from Latin America for the first time in franchise history.

Yohan Flande (0-5) went six innings and gave up four hits and two runs as Colorado lost for the fifth time in six games.

It was Despaigne's first win since June 29 against Arizona, when he won in the second of his first two major league starts.

''He had better use of the fastball and threw it with a little more convention and that set up the other pitches,'' Black said. ''That is something we talked about in between starts. That was great to see that he took a pitching plan and into the ballgame and executed it based on our conversation of fundamental pitching.''

Despaigne allowed 10 runs in his last two outings before rebounding against Colorado, the major's worst road team at 18-43 and worst overall at 46-73.

''In the big leagues, hitters make adjustment if they see a guy doesn't have command with the fastball, they are not going to swing at the breaking ball,'' Despaigne said through a translator. ''Today I threw all the pitches for the strikes and I was aggressive with fastball.''

Colorado's run came on Corey Dickerson's ninth-inning homer, his third in three games.

''He had good stuff and kept a lot of people off balance tonight,'' Dickerson said.

Almonte put the Padres up 2-0 in the fourth when his sacrifice fly scored Rymer Liriano. Liriano reached on his first major league hit - an infield single.

The Padres opened the scoring in the second when Yonder Alonso scored on Amarista's fielder's choice.

Alonso left in the fourth with a right forearm strain and was to undergo an MRI.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Padres: SS Everth Cabrera was placed on the disabled list, retroactive to Sunday, with a strained left hamstring. . RHP Andrew Cashner, who's been on the DL since June 21 with a sore right shoulder, is scheduled to make two rehab starts for Triple-A El Paso. Black said Cashner will be limited to four innings/60 pitches in the Wednesday's outing. On Monday, Cashner will be extended to five innings/75-80 pitches.

Rockies: LHP Brett Anderson, who's been on the disabled list since Aug. 6, will undergo surgery on Thursday to repair a disk in his lower back. Manager Walt Weiss said he expected Anderson to be ready for spring training.

UP NEXT

Rockies: LHP Tyler Matzek (2-7, 3.52 ERA) will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak in making his first appearance at Petco Park.

Padres: RHP Ian Kennedy (8-10, 3.51), who lost his last time out, at Pittsburgh, has gone at least six innings in 18 of his 24 starts this season.

OLD TRICK

When Liriano got his first major league hit, the ball was flipped to the Padres' dugout for safekeeping. Hitting coach Alonzo Powell retrieved the memento and quickly flipped a decoy baseball he had stashed in his pocket into the crowd as a bewildered Liriano looked on.

YO, FLANDE HITS

Flande reached on his first two plate appearances, with the second one resulting in his first major league hit. It wasn't clear if Flande was fooled like Liriano, but he had this in common with Liriano: both of the first-time hits were of the infield variety.

MULTIPLE MORNEAU

Justin Morneau had a multihit outing for the sixth straight game, which ties a career high. Morneau was 2 for 3 with a walk.

27,188 PLUS 2

Right after the night's attendance was announced, two more people entered the stands. Nelson made a great catch of a pop fly in the eighth inning while falling into the stands. That was followed by 1B Tommy Medica doing likewise in the seats behind first base.