Know Your Foe #29: First-place Padres stride into Coors Field looking for revenge

SAN DIEGO PADRES (49-35, 1st in NL West)

2010 Record vs. Rockies: 3-6

Last Series vs. Rockies: June 28-30 @ Petco Park (L 1-2)

The Padres tried their best to make furious comebacks in the first two games of the series after Colorado took big early leads. However, their attempts were thwarted - largely due to some nice work by the Rockies' bullpen. In Game 1, the Rockies got off to an 8-0 lead through 5 1/2 innings. Meanwhile, Ubaldo Jimenez held the Padres hitless through the first five. However, they broke through in the sixth with a big home run from Scott Hairston that cut the lead in half. Hairston hurt the Rockies again with another double in the next inning that cut Colorado's lead to two, but that's as close as the Friars would get as Edward Mujica was unable to keep the Rockies off the board in the ninth inning.

Game 2 was similar, with the Rockies jumping out to another lead - this time, 4-0 - before the Padres made things interesting late in the game. In the bottom of the seventh inning the other Hairston brother, Jerry, launched a leadoff home run and set the stage for a three-run inning that cut the Padres' deficit to one. However, Colorado once again tacked on two more runs in the ninth, this time at the expense of Ryan Webb, and assured the Padres of a third consecutive series loss to the Rockies.

San Diego would take the aggregate in the series - similar to what the Rockies have been doing against the Dodgers - by walloping Colorado 13-3 in the finale. The Padres mostly BABIP'd the Rockies pitching staff to death in this one, although a couple of the higher-leverage hits - mostly, Scott Hairston's bases-clearing double - were legitimately mashed. In addition, Clayton Richard did in this game what the other Padre starters were unable to do in the previous two games - keep Colorado's offense in check. Richard allowed just two runs on five hits in seven innings, and struck out a career-high ten batters.

Naturally, Scott Hairston did the bulk of the damage for the Padres' offense in this series, as he went 5-for-13 with eight runs batted in.

Recent Series Results: won 3-1 vs. Houston, lost 1-2 at Washington

Mat Latos, who won't see action in the upcoming series in Denver, has been brilliant for the Padres over his last couple of starts. Against Houston, Latos pitched eight innings of scoreless ball and allowed just four hits while striking out seven. Last night in Washington, he added seven more scoreless innings onto his streak while giving up five hits and racking up eight punch outs. Plus, he hit his first career homer.

Among the guys who will make appearances versus the Rockies, Correia and LeBlanc had arguably the best individual starts over the last couple of series, although both were against the Astros - a team whose offense is vastly inferior to that of Colorado, especially at Coors Field.

Offensively, the Padres have been (not surprisingly) led by Adrian Gonzalez, who had six hits and a homer in the Washington series; and Chase Headley, who had seven hits including a round-tripper.

Friday-Sunday: 3-game series @ Coors Field

Expected Pitching Matchups

Friday, 9 July 2010 @ 7:10pm MT

Saturday, 10 July 2010 @ 6:10pm MT

Sunday, 11 July 2010 @ 1:10pm MT

More after the jump...

Expected Lineup

Bench

Closer

Injuries