For Reynolds, Loss Is Short, Not-so-Sweet

Wally Joyner and the rest of the San Diego Padres gave Shane Reynolds a night he’d like to forget.

Joyner and John Flaherty each drove in three runs Saturday night, leading the San Diego Padres to a 12-5 victory over the Houston Astros at Houston.

The Padres scored four times in the first inning. San Diego chased Shane Reynolds (4-5) in the second with four more runs for an 8-1 lead.

Sterling Hitchcock (5-5) pitched into the eighth inning for the victory.

Tony Gwynn missed the game with a slight hamstring pull and is listed as day-to-day.

Reynolds lasted only 1 1/3 innings in his shortest outing of the year. He gave up eight runs and 10 hits.

“This was maybe the worst start of my career,” Reynolds said. “It was just one of those bad days. I made bad pitches.”

Astro first baseman Jeff Bagwell hit his 17th home run.

Joyner entered the game with one hit in 13 at-bats against Reynolds.

“This was a first for me, I’ve never had any luck against him,” Joyner said. “He’s got a great fastball and a great forkball and he keeps you off balance. Tonight, we got some cheap hits early and got him in trouble and then he had to throw the ball over the plate more than he wanted to.”

Archi Cianfrocco led off the game with a double, and singles by Trey Beamon and Steve Finley made it 1-0. Joyner, Chris Gomez and Flaherty followed with RBI singles.

After Bagwell hit a home run in the Astro first, the Padres scored four times in the second.

Cianfrocco got it going with a single, and singles by Beamon and Finley produced a run. Joyner doubled in two runs and scored on a single by Gomez.

Finley scored his third run in the fourth on a single by Greg Vaughn, making it 9-2.

James Mouton tripled and scored on a wild pitch by Hitchcock in the fifth.

The Astros loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth. Reliever Doug Bochtler walked Luis Gonzalez, and pinch-hitter Thomas Howard had a sacrifice fly off Pete Smith.

The Padres added three runs in the ninth on an run-scoring single by Vaughn and a two-run single by Flaherty.