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Arizona rallies to beat Padres

Chad Tracy doubled in three runs in Arizona`s five-run eighth inning, and the Diamondbacks rallied to beat the San Diego Padres 8-5 on Saturday night. Tracy was 3-for-5 with two doubles and Luis Gonzalez homered twice with three RBIs for the Diamondbacks, who avoided elimination in the NL West. The first-place Padres dropped back to .500 at 77-77, the same record as the last-place New York Mets in the NL East.

Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer for the Padres, who led 5-3 before Arizona`s comeback. With San Francisco`s 6-0 loss at Colorado, the Padres lead the second-place Giants by five games with eight to play. Akinori Otsuka (2-7), the sixth of seven San Diego pitchers, allowed four runs, two hits and two walks in one-third of an inning. Alex Cintron led off the Arizona eighth with a double, then pinch-hitter Royce Clayton and Craig Counsell drew one-out walks to load the bases. Gonzalez singled in Cintron, and Chris Hammond relieved Otsuka. Tracy sent Hammond`s 1-1 pitch over Damian Jackson in center to clear the bases.

Hernandez`s two-out homer off Russ Ortiz broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth. Gonzalez leaped high to try to catch the ball at the left-field wall. Replays indicated the ball bounced off the top of Gonzalez`s glove over the wall. But he said afterward that he slipped into a crease in the wall and the ball skimmed over his reach off the padding and into the stands.