The San Diego Padres will try to continue their dominance of the Arizona Diamondbacks when the two NL West foes collide Friday in the opener of a three-game series at Petco Park.
The Padres have won eight of the 12 matchups so far with the Diamondbacks and recently swept them in a three-game series from Aug. 24-26. San Diego has won six in a row against Arizona -- all at Chase Field -- but is 2-4 as the host.
San Diego, which is opening a nine-game homestand tonight versus the D-backs, Cardinals and Rockies, went 3-3 on a recent road trip and took two out of three encounters with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In a 4-3 win on Wednesday, Chase Headley had two hits and an RBI, while Everth Cabrera went 2-for-4 with a run scored and Will Venable scored twice.
Padres starter Clayton Richard allowed three runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings for the no-decision and Nick Vincent picked up the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Tom Layne, the sixth reliever used by the Padres, later nailed down his second save by getting the final out of the game.
"We've got a lot of guys in the bullpen who can throw strikes," Vincent said on the club's website. "For us younger guys who have been going up and down, I think that we're starting to get comfortable. And that's one of the best lineups in the league over there."
Headley is batting .347 with five homers, 13 runs and 21 RBI in his last 17 games. The Padres are 12-5 in that time.
Andrew Cashner will start for the Friars tonight for the first time since July 3 at Arizona because of a shoulder injury. The right-hander lasted two innings in that one and is 3-3 with a 3.44 earned run average in 30 games (3 starts) this season. Cashner, who last won on June 1 versus the D-backs, is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in six career games, two of which have been starts, in this series.
The Diamondbacks will begin the final leg of their 10-game road trip and just won two of three matchups in San Francisco.
Arizona took the series by the bay with Wednesday's 6-4 win behind 6 1/3 strong innings from Trevor Cahill. Cahill took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and held the Giants to a pair of runs and two hits.
"Your adrenaline starts getting up and I was trying to maybe do too much at the end and just kind of got a little bit tired," Cahill said.
Chris Johnson stroked a two-run double, while Aaron Hill, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero and John McDonald all knocked in a run for the Diamondbacks, who are 4-3 so far on the trek. Hill fell a triple short of the cycle. He already has achieved the feat twice this season.
Taking the mound for D-backs tonight will be Tyler Skaggs. The left-handed rookie is 1-1 with a 2.60 earned run average in three starts, and tossed five innings of one-run ball at Los Angeles on Saturday. He has lasted at least five innings in each start and will face San Diego for the first time.
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