Padres blank Nationals

WASHINGTON - A slightly injured Jake Peavy coasted to a shutout against a Washington Nationals lineup that looked like something manager Frank Robinson might send out for a split-squad spring training game.

Peavy scattered five hits against a makeshift starting nine, helped himself with an RBI single, and Eric Young and Xavier Nady added solo homers to lead San Diego past Washington 3-0 Sunday for a three-game series sweep.

The Nationals have lost eight of their last nine series and are just 6-17 since the All-Star break. The NL West-leading Padres, meanwhile, have won four straight and five of six to get back to a game over.500.

Peavy (10-4) showed no signs of being hampered by a middle finger that was black and blue after getting hit by a ball when he shagged flies Friday. He struck out 10, giving him 29 in his last three starts.

Washington starter Esteban Loaiza (6-8) gave up the three runs on six hits over seven innings.

A day after holding a 104-minute, closed-door clubhouse meeting to "clear the air," Robinson tried another gambit. Whether Robinson was trying to spark his struggling offense or just trying to give some rest to his regulars before a 13-game road trip, the results were what might have been expected.

First baseman Nick Johnson and shortstop Cristian Guzman were the only regulars who began the game.

Indeed, Padres manager Bruce Bochy did a double-take when he was handed a sheet of paper with the Nationals' lineup on it a couple of hours before the first pitch.

"Every team or manager does it at some point," Bochy said, then paused before adding with a smile: "He could have shaken it up a little more and taken Johnson out."

Johnson was the only member of the Nationals' starting nine who entered Sunday with a batting average above.300 -.320 with 10 homers and 46 RBIs - and Peavy clearly was not going to let the first baseman hurt him.

The right-hander pitched around Johnson early, walking him twice - Peavy's only walks, then went after him once the Padres had a lead.

Washington did manage to rap out the occasional hit, but continued a long-established pattern: All were singles, and only once did a runner get to third. That was in the sixth inning, when Peavy had to deal with runners on the corners with two outs after he hit Carlos Baerga with a pitch and gave up a single to Ryan Church.

But Matt Cepicky slapped a simple grounder to first to end the inning.

From the fifth into the eighth, Peavy had a stretch where eight of 10 outs he recorded were by strikeout, including Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson when both regulars entered as pinch hitters in the seventh.

In contrast, the very first time the Padres got a runner as far as second base - on Khalil Greene's double in the fifth - they scored, on a single up the middle by Peavy.

Young's second homer of the season went down the left-field line and landed just below the upper deck in the sixth. In the next inning, Nady's 12th was to straightaway center, over the 410-foot marker. Notes: Wilkerson stayed in the game to play center field, and in the eighth he made a tumbling catch on a sinking liner by Nady.... Nationals OF Jose Guillen will get a second opinion on his ailing left shoulder from Dr. James Andrews. GM Jim Bowden said Guillen probably won't play in the upcoming series at Houston, and might also miss time in the next series, at Colorado.