San Diego @ Arizona preview
Chase Field
Last Meeting ( Aug 7, 2010 ) San Diego 5, Arizona 6
Some teams have a ballpark in which they have all kinds of problems. Lately, that ballpark for the San Diego Padres has been Chase Field.
The Padres look to avoid being swept today when they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the finale of their three-game series at Chase Field.
With losses in the first two games, San Diego has dropped 14 of its last 18 contests here, including a 1-4 mark this season. The Diamondbacks are 22-10 against the Padres at home since the beginning of 2007 and 73-35 all time.
San Diego, which holds a one-game lead over San Francisco in the National League West, nearly pulled out a rare victory at Chase on Saturday as it rallied from a five-run deficit to forge a 5-5 tie. Jerry Hairston Jr. led off the ninth inning with a homer to cut the deficit to one and Adrian Gonzalez went deep with two outs to draw the Padres even.
But Chris Young belted his second shot of the game leading off the bottom of the ninth to give Arizona its third straight win and fifth in seven games.
The Padres, who have lost four of their last five and seven of 12, will turn to Mat Latos in hopes of avoiding being swept for the second time this season. San Diego lost all three meetings with the Los Angeles Dodgers from May 14-16.
Latos had his six-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday, when he gave up just two runs and four hits in six innings but came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 loss at Los Angeles. The 22-year-old has allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last nine starts, going 6-1 with a 1.57 ERA.
Since yielding seven earned runs at Florida on April 26, Latos has held the opposition to three or less in 16 straight outings. In 20 starts in 2010, the right-hander has surrendered more than three earned runs just twice.
Latos, who leads the NL with a .195 opponents batting average, is 7-3 with a 2.66 ERA in 12 starts on the road this year.
Faced with the task of opposing Latos is Joe Saunders, who will be making his third start for the Diamondbacks since being acquired from the Los Angeles Angels on July 25.
In his first two outings, Saunders has gone 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA. On Tuesday, the 29-year-old tossed his third complete game of the season and fifth career, allowing just one run and five hits en route to a 6-1 victory over Washington.
Saunders, who went 6-10 with the Angels prior to the trade, won his only previous career start against San Diego, yielding one run and seven hits over 8 1/3 innings in a 9-1 triumph on June 13, 2009.
Arizona hopes to get back Mark Reynolds soon, as the slugger has missed the last three games after being hit in the head by a pitch on Tuesday.