Padres win their home opener...

Patience at the plate combine with good pitching of native Aaron Harang, turned out to be the difference Tuesday afternoon as the Padres scored a 3-1 win over the reigning world champion San Francisco Giants before 43,146 atPetco Park.

"Walks done right can be just as important as run-scoring hits," Padres hitting coach Randy Ready said this spring while preaching the gospel of "selectivity" in Arizona.

With the score tied 1-1 and runners on first and second with two out in the third, Ludwick came back out of an 0-and-2 hole Madison Bumgarner to draw a 10-pitch, bases-loading walk.

Headley then worked through eight pitches to draw the walk that forced home the decisive run.

Even Bumgarner was impressed by the Padres' "selectivity."

"I made some good pitches," said the left-hander who pitched the Giants' World Series-clinching win last November. "They put together some good at-bats.

"Their hitters did a fantastic job. They spoiled all the good pitches."

"Friar Ball," is how Ludwick described the three-run third off Bumgarner, who retired the Padres in his first two innings on a total of 29 pitches.

The Padres' three-run third consumed 41 Bumgarner pitches.

The frustration by Bumgarner might have resulted in the Padres' final run.

After Headley's walk forced in the second run, Chris Denorfia topped a ball in front of the plate. Bumgarner fielded the ball with plenty of time to make a play at first. But the ball flew out of his hand as he turned toward first -- the play was ruled a hit.

Nick Hundley opened the inning with the first of his three hits and was sacrificed to second by Harang. Jason Bartlett then drew an eight-pitch walk from Bumgarner before Orlando Hudson singled to load the bases.

Jorge Cantu tied the score with a wicked liner of a sacrifice fly to left.

That brought up Ludwick, who was down to his last strike after two pitches. He fouled off four of the next eight pitches en route to his fourth walk in as many games -- including a bases-loaded walk against the Cardinals.

That walk brought Headley to the plate. PaBumgarner fell behind with a pair of balls before firing three straight strikes, two of which Headley fouled off. Bumgarner just missed with the next two pitches, Bartlett trotting home from third.

Meantime, Harang held the Giants to one run on six hits over six innings while the bullpen troika of Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams and Heath Bell closed out the Padres' third win in four games.

Trevor Hoffman threw the ceremonial first pitch...

The Padres brought back some former Padres onto the Petco Park infield during yesterday's home opener pregame festivities.

They started out with 93-year-old George McDonald, of the Padres’ Pacific Coast League days, rolled out in a wheelchair. Then came “Downtown” Ollie Brown, Randy Jones, Garry Templeton and Mark Loretta.

Then AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” started playing, the center field bullpen gate opened and out came Trevor Hoffman. The place went nuts, including Padres relief pitchers, who stopped on their way to the bullpen and applauded Trevor.

Trevor’s brother and Padres third-base coach Glenn Hoffman caught Trevor’s ceremonial first pitch. “I considered burying it in the dirt,” joked Trevor Hoffman, “but I threw a low strike.”

Padres win behind a great performance by Clayton Richard

The Padres win again and have a chance for their first season-opening sweep since 1984.

Pitcher Clayton Richard had two RBIs to match his career high without getting the ball out of the infield and pitched six solid innings in an 11-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday. The Padres broke it open with a six-run fifth that included four hits, four walks and a sacrifice fly.

Padres wins season opener in 11th...

Playing small ball paid off for the San Diego Padres.

Cameron Maybin tied it with a two-out homer in the ninth inning, then grounded a single that led to the go-ahead run in the 11th  in a 5-3 opening win over the Cardinals.

The Padres managed just two hits the first seven innings but scored two runs, and then capitalized on the Cards fielding error.

Cardinals star Albert Pujols an awful start to the season. He grounded into a career-worst three double plays while going 0 for 5 while five men on base.

"Definitely we had our chances," Pujols said. "A couple times we had men in scoring position and I didn't do my job."

Matt Holliday homered in the eighth and had three hits for St. Louis. The Cardinals played extra innings on Opening Day for the first time since a 4-2, 10-inning home loss to the Mets in 1992. The last Padres' opener that went extras was in 1996 during a 5-4 loss at Chicago.

It was tied up at 3 when Chase Headley singled off Bryan Augenstein with two outs in the 11th. Maybin followed with a single through the right side and Theriot bobbled right fielder Jon Jay's bounced relay back to the infield.

Headley kept running and made a headfirst slide to beat the throw home. Nick Hundley added an RBI single for the Padres.

Pat Neshek (1-0) worked around two walks in the 10th and Heath Bell needed only 10 pitches for the save.

Maybin's solo home run came off a curveball from Ryan Franklin, who went 27 for 29 in save situations last season.

The Cardinals outhit San Diego 10-2 the first six innings but hit into three double plays, two by Pujols, and were 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Three times they put the first two men on, but totaled one run.

The Padres erased their second one-run deficit on Hundley's two-out, RBI double in the fifth. The Cardinals almost made it out of the inning the previous at-bat when Maybin struck out with Ryan Ludwick running on a full count.

Ludwick looked like an easy out at second, but he rattled the ball out of second baseman Skip Schumaker's glove, what Schumaker called a "perfect knockdown," for a stolen base.