Great game Tuesday night at Petco. The Padres fell behind early but battled back. Neither Jake Peavy, who started the game, nor Trevor Hoffman, who finished it, had his best stuff, but both got the job done.

A few observations from Section 309:

• The defensive shift against Khalil Greene was odd. In his first at-bat since coming off the DL, he lined a shot back up the middle for what should have been a base hit. Unfortunately the D’backs’ second baseman was standing right behind the bag and caught the ball, no problem. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that shift against Greene.
• Speaking of Greene, I didn’t cringe on a single ball hit to shortstop. That hasn’t happened in a while. It’s real good to have him back.
• Good hustle from Ben Johnson on a grounder back to the box in the second. He almost beat the throw to first. Johnson hit the ball on the ground every time up Tuesday, which you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a guy who leads the organization in homers this year. Also, he played all three outfield spots in the game: started in center, moved to left, finished in right.
• Brian Giles and Mark Loretta never give away an at-bat. Giles reminds me of Tony Gwynn in that many of his at-bats don’t even start until he’s down, 0-2. In the bottom of the first, Giles laid off some pitches that would have tempted most hitters before launching a three-run homer on a 3-2 offering. He had a similar at-bat as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of Monday night’s game, but the ball fell just shy of the right field porch.
• Eric Young got picked off first in the fifth. This isn’t directed at him specifically, but the Padres need to be smarter on the basepaths. With the way this team hits, they can’t afford to give away outs like that.
• Interesting that Bruce Bochy chose to let Scott Linebrink pitch to just one batter. I wonder if playing a day game Wednesday might have had something to do with that decision. Guess we’ll find out on Wednesday.
• The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” played during an Arizona pitching change. Nice.
• There is no excuse for Damian Jackson not getting on Shawn Green‘s base hit in the eighth. What should have been a single turned into a double. It didn’t cost anything, but it’s one of those things, like the baserunning, that just makes a team look bad.
• I like the decision to have Xavier Nady bunt in the eighth. Much as I hate to admit it, I was actually thinking Robert Fick or Ryan Klesko might make sense against Tim Worrell. It helped that Nady laid down a real nice bunt.
• I also thought Fick should’ve batted for Miguel Olivo that same inning. What do I know. Olivo darned near hit a grand slam. As it is, he drove in a run on a fly ball that took Luis Gonzalez to the wall. Olivo almost hit two balls out of the park Tuesday night. I’m thinking he’s the starter behind the dish in 2006.
• Hoffman allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Quinton McCracken to start the ninth. The next batter, Alex Cintron, fell behind 0-2. With Tony Clark on deck representing the tying run, Hoffman got Cintron to roll into a 6-3 double play. That was huge. Hoffman wasn’t locating the changeup real well, but he made the pitches when he needed to and sealed a much-needed victory for Peavy and company.