Brown Leads Padres To Sweet Victory

There's nothing like a two-homer game to take the pain away for Ken Caminiti.

After playing sparingly against Milwaukee over the weekend due to a sore back, the San Diego slugger provided the offensive punch with two long balls as the Padres defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 Tuesday night.

Kevin Brown (17-4) pitched seven innings of five-hit ball to tie for the league lead in wins.

Caminiti hit a solo shot in the fifth off Curt Schilling (12-12) for a 4-1 lead, then hit his 26th homer in the ninth against Mark Leiter. He is second on the team with 76 RBI. Greg Vaughn, who sat out the game with the flu, leads the club with 104 RBI.

"I just needed a little bit of time off," Caminiti said. "My back hurts more when I'm hitting right-handed, but over the weekend I was having some trouble left-handed mainly because I was swinging too hard.

"When you try to hurt the ball, that's when you get hurt. I went into this game trying to put a nice, easy swing on the ball. What happens? I hit two home runs."

It was Caminiti's second multi-homer game this season, the 16th of his career. He has four homers off Schilling in 37 career at-bats.

"Ken's back has been bothering him on this rod trip and we've had to rest him a little," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said. "He came up to me before the game and said he was feeling good. Then, he went out and showed it.

"Ken is a big part of this team's success and we need him to be healthy for the remainder of the season."

Brown (17-4) tied Atlanta's Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux for the NL wins lead, allowing three runs, striking out five and walking none. He retired the side in order in the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh innings.

"I didn't have my best stuff," said Brown, who is also suffering from the flu bug. "The team did a great job of putting runs on the board early, that's big."

Dan Miceli worked the eighth and Trevor Hoffman pitched the ninth for his major league-leading 42nd save, tying a career high. The Padres' streak when leading after eight innings improved to 161, dating back to July 1996.

Mark Sweeney of the Padres went 4-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and a run scored. The four hits were a career high for Sweeney, who has been filling in for the injured Tony Gwynn.

Gwynn, who is out with an inflamed left Achilles' tendon, is expected to be back in the lineup on Friday. As his replacement, Sweeney is 17-for-34, lifting his average from .213 to .266.

"I've been happy that I've gotten some at-bats, but I know that we're a better team with Tony in the lineup," Sweeney said. "I know what my role is and that's coming off the bench. Being able to start these games has given me the at-bats I need to become more of a productive player off the bench."

The win put the Padres at 85-47, 38 games over .500, the first time the organization has ever reached that plateau.

Schilling allowed four runs and six hits in seven innings. He struck out six, raising his league-leading total to 253, and walked four.

"I never got into a groove," Schilling said. "We battled back, but I got hurt by Caminiti's home run which was on a 2-0 pitch."

San Diego took a 3-0 lead in the second on a two-run single by Chris Gomez and an RBI groundout by Brown.

"Down 3-0 against Brown, that's not good," Phillies manager Terry Francona said.

Gregg Jefferies hit a two-out RBI single in the third, stopping Brown's consecutive scoreless innings streak at 19 innings. Jefferies pulled the Phillies within 4-3 with a two-run homer in the sixth.

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