Padres' Kielty swings at real estate deals

Bobby Kielty went 0-for-2 in the Tucson Padres' 12-2 loss to the New Orleans Zephyrs on Saturday, but the outfielder often hits real estate deals out of the park.

"Flipping property has been a hobby of mine for awhile," Kielty said. "You know, it's just like you see on TV. My wife is a big fan of (real estate shows), and I made some money in the big leagues, so we figured we'd give it a shot."

Kielty has played for the Twins, Athletics, Blue Jays and Red Sox at the major league level.

The switch hitter earned his broker's license in California in 2006, and now owns 25 properties that are on the market.

"All of the houses I own are in close proximity to each other in California," Kielty said. "It's been successful for me to buy houses around the same location, so I can really get to know the market in that area well."

Kielty's favorite property that he flipped was the one he worked on the most.

"There was this one house in a really bad neighborhood that was just an absolute disaster," Kielty said. "I totally redid the whole house and did a bunch of landscape work. That was my favorite one."

The 35-year-old said he does not get artistic in his flipping but does enjoy making drastic changes to a house.

"I blew out the kitchen wall at this one place, and that was really fun," Kielty said. "It was to make more space for the future residents. But yeah, I don't really get too creative."

In the most recent four-game series against the Zephyrs, Kielty batted .500 with 4 RBIs and 2 home runs. He had multi-hit nights in all but Saturday's game and hit a walk-off home run in Friday's 10-inning bout.

"My hitting coach (Bob Skube) has been working a lot with me lately," he said. "We have a really good relationship, and he's helped me work out little mechanical things like staying short (on my swing) and staying through the ball a little longer. He understands my swing well."

After winning the first three consecutive games against the Zephyrs in the series, Tucson dropped its final game of four, 12-2, on Saturday.

The night opened with a 3-run first inning by New Orleans, capped by a RBI double by Mike Cervenek that drove in two. The Padres manufactured 2 runs in the bottom of the first but would not put another across the whole night.

Tucson starting pitcher Jon Leicester went 3 2/3 innings on 7 runs (6 earned), 10 hits and 3 strikeouts.

"Jon didn't have much command or control of either pitch," head coach Terry Kennedy said. "The slider was flat, and when he threw fastballs, they were up in the zone early (in the count), and New Orleans didn't miss them. Jon just really couldn't find his pitches tonight."

Padres pitcher Will Inman, who threw a hitless and scoreless fifth inning, relieved Leicester in the fourth. He retired all four batters that he faced.

"I just tried to attack the zone as much as possible," Inman said. "The most important thing for me was to throw strikes. I think I got away with some pitches that I left up in the zone, but really throwing strikes and not walking guys can help the game get going, so that's what I was trying to do."

New Orleans had three 3-run innings, including the first, fourth and eighth. Cervenek had another 2-run double in the fourth, which gave him 4 RBIs on the night. Every position player on the Zephyrs had an RBI except two, and six New Orleans players had multi-hit evenings.

"It was a tough loss tonight," Padres' outfielder Matt Clark said. "Their pitchers did a good job at keeping us off-balance at the plate, and we weren't able to pull this one off tonight."

Clark was the only Padres player with more than one hit, going 2-for-4 with 1 RBI. Tucson was held to 7 hits on the night by New Orleans.

"It was nice to take this series from the Zephyrs," Kennedy said. "I'm happy that we won three out of the four. They had swept us last season in Portland in four straight games, so this was nice payback."

The Padres start a new four-game home series against Oklahoma City Red Hawks on Sunday at Kino.