San Diego @ Los Angeles preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 4, 2010 ) San Diego 0, LA Dodgers 9

The San Diego Padres recently traded for reinforcements Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick, hoping to spruce up a less-than-imposing offense.

The moves haven’t helped the past two nights as the Padres have been stymied by the Los Angeles Dodgers' pitching.

San Diego looks to break out of its offensive funk as it seeks a split of a four-game series with its Southern California rivals Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

The Padres have scored just once in their last two games after erupting for 10 runs in the series opener.

Los Angeles left-hander Ted Lilly dominated the Padres on Tuesday, allowing just two hits and retiring the final 20 batters he faced in a 2-1 victory. Right-hander Vicente Padilla bettered Lilly’s performance by taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning on Wednesday, finishing with a complete-game two-hit shutout in a 9-0 rout.

San Diego’s recent additions have yet to hit their stride with their new team.

Tejada struck out three times on Wednesday and is batting .174 (4-for-23) with a homer and three RBIs. Ludwick, who broke up Padilla’s no-hit bid, is hitting .308 (4-for-13) but hasn’t driven in a run.

Tejada hit his first homer as a Padre in the first inning of Tuesday’s game, San Diego’s only run the past two nights.

The back-to-back wins helped Los Angeles shave two games off San Diego’s lead and the Dodgers are now seven games behind the Padres. San Diego’s lead over second-place San Francisco stands at one game after both teams lost Wednesday.

Los Angeles looks for another solid pitching performance Thursday behind Chad Billingsley (9-5), who hasn’t allowed a run in 21 2/3 innings over his last three starts.

One of Billingsley’s solid outings was against the Padres in San Diego on July 27 when he pitched six shutout innings of three-hit ball during a 2-0 victory.

Billingsley’s other two splendid outings were against the Giants – a complete-game shutout on July 21 and 6 2/3 scoreless innings on July 31.

The stingy stretch has helped Billingsley lower his earned-run average from 4.61 to 3.78.

Billingsley has a 10-4 lifetime record against the Padres with a 2.36 ERA.

Kevin Correia (7-7) pitches for San Diego and his season-long struggles have been largely due to the long ball.

Correia has allowed 17 homers in 110 1/3 innings and has a 5.06 ERA on the campaign. He lost to Florida in his most recent start, allowing three runs and four hits, including a pair of home runs, in six innings.

Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier has dominated Correia in his career. The Dodgers outfielder has a .533 batting average and .611 on-base percentage lifetime against the Padres hurler.

Ethier was 3-for-5 with a homer on Wednesday.

Los Angeles placed catcher Russell Martin (hip) on the disabled list Wednesday, and is also without shortstop Rafael Furcal (back). Martin was hurt running the bases on Tuesday while Furcal was injured while making a throw on Monday.

Padres catcher Yorvit Torrealba went 0-for-3 on Wednesday to snap a 15-game hitting streak.