Game Thread: 6/25 Padres vs. Braves

Our Padres started off this six-game homestand last night with a decisive win against the Braves. Tim Stauffer pitched another fantastic game, allowing just two runs on four hits in his fourth consecutive 7-inning start. He walked no one and struck out a career-high nine batters, the most by a Padre this season. In the past, two runs have often been too much of a defecit to overcome by our offense, but last night we exploded with 11 runs, a season high for us at home. To put this into perspective, all of Stauffer's previous starts this season were backed by a total of 22 runs. We put up half that many runs on the board just last night. Also notable was the phenomenal MLB debut of Josh Spence, who retired Jason Heyward, Chipper Jones, and Brian McCann to close out the game in the ninth.

It seems that the Boston series has really given the team the boost of confidence it has needed all season. To take a series from one of the top teams in the MLB this year, in their stadium, amid their hot streak, was what many considered an impossible feat. And our team is took that high and brought it back home in their best offensive performance of the year. Can they continue that tonight and increase their win streak to four in a row?

Tonight we get the chance to clinch our second consecutive series win. Dustin Moseley will make his first start at Petco since dislocating his non-throwing shoulder. This will be the first time he has to hit since that happened, as his two previous starts were in AL stadiums where a DH was used. Hopefully our offense didn't use up all their gas in last night's run-fest and they are able to give him some run support as well.

Atlanta will send Jair Jurrjens to the mound to try to stifle our offense. He pitched a complete game against us in April and allowed just two runs in the Braves victory. This season he is 9-3 with an ERA of 2.11. However, he hasn't faced this hot-hitting, Red-Sox-killing lineup so perhaps his luck is about to run out.

GO FRIARS!! KEEP THE FAITH!!

P.S. I'll be following the game from the fair today, so you can get off my nuts for not being in the game thread.