It may not be his 500 plus career save, but when Heath Bell struck out San Francisco Giants' (19-20) Rich Aurilia for his 300th career strikeout, he also secured the San Diego Padres (18-22) their fifth victory in a row to open up an important home stand. Now, all of a sudden the Friars appear to have found a formula for winning in solid pitching and the long-ball.

The victory was starting pitcher Chad Gaudin’s (1-3) first win as a Padre. He also became the fourth Padre starter to notch a win in the Padres now five-game win streak. A dramatic turnaround since between April 17 and May 14 when Padres starting pitchers tied a franchise record in failing to secure a win in twenty-five attempts.

In the second inning the San Francisco Giants were able to get on the board first with a two-out, infield single by Emmanuel Burriss. On the play, second baseman David Eckistien was unable to field a seeing-eye ground ball smoothly and complete a clean relay to Gaudin who was covering the first base bag. This allowed Randy Winn to score, Winn had doubled and then advanced to third on a wild pitch walk to Travis Ishikawa.

The Padres quickly answered in the bottom of the second. Chase Headley walked with two outs and then Nick Hundley drove him in with a double down the left-field line.

Kevin Kouzmanoff then gave the Padres a 2-1 lead with a solo home run to left field on a 0-0 pitch to start the fourth. This, for the second night in a row, was enough to secure the victory.

Like Chris Young the night before, Gaudin constantly found himself pitching out of jams as he allowed Giants’ runners to reach base in every inning but the 1st. Fortunately for the Padres, the Giants could never quite find the hit when needed as the stranded 7 runners in the first 6 innings. Gaudin finished the game pitching 6 strong innings allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 4 walks before handing it off to the bull pen that was once again stellar.

Greg Burke pitched the 7thallowing just 1 hit. Luke Gregerson then pitched a one-two-three inning in the 8th.

In attempt to rile up his own team, Giant Manager Bruce Bochy put on a show of his own. Eckistien lead off the bottom of the8th inning andwas ruled safe at first when a Burriss throw from second base pulled Travis Ishikawa off the bag. Although replays indicated that Ishikawa may have gotten his foot back on the bag prior to Eckistien reaching first, Bochy argued the call more fervently than warranted. Earning an ejection by umpire Gary Cederstrom for Bochy’s second of the year.

Eckistien would reach third on a two out Kevin Kouzmanoff single. Chase Headley then struck out to end the threat. This left the game in the hands of Bell with only a 1 run lead. Bell did not let down the Padres faithful. He retired the side in order in the ninth giving a perfect 11-0 record as a closer this season with a 0.00 ERA.

With Bells performance, the Padres relievers have not allowed a run in their last in their last 20.1 innings of work going back to May 14 at Chicago.

With the win, the Padres remain 10 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (29-13) who won again last night defeating the New York Mets 2-1, giving the Dodgers the best record in baseball. Nonetheless, the Padres are winning again themselves and are not falling any further back.

Prior to the game Brian Giles said, “Any time you win it builds confidence. Obviously, that was a tough road trip to Houston and Chicago and we had a home stand there where we were in four games late and we could have won all four. Once we won the first four here, we knew that this was going to be an important home stand to jump start our season.”

Tonight the Padres look to continue their revitalization efforts as they attempt complete a sweep of the Giants.