Coming off a sweep at the hands of the Marlins, our Padres will try to right the ship as they welcome the Rockies to Petco Park for a three-game series. After this past weekend, our rotation is under some pressure to work deeper into games. Not only did we lose our closer to the DL, but our rookie-laden bullpen is taxed after having to pitch into the 12th inning on Saturday.
Edinson Volquez toes the rubber today in his seventh start of the season and his fifth career start against Colorado. He is coming off a great start, in which he pitched seven scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and two walks. However, a lack of run support got him his fourth no-decision of the season and has him yet again seeking that elusive first win tonight. Volquez has improved a lot since the beginning of the season and has put up solid performances with nothing to show for it, so we really need our offense to figure something out and work themselves out of this losing streak.
They will be facing rookie southpaw Drew Pomeranz, who is coming off his longest outing (6.2 innings) against the Dodgers. He allowed just one run on four hits, but was also plagued by a lack of run support and ended up with the no-decision. Pomeranz is also looking for his first win of the season as he takes on San Diego. But he'll have confidence in the fact that the Rockies have won 12 of their last 16 in San Diego and took 2 of 3 from our Padres last month in Colorado. It'll be up to our lineup to shake that confidence and find a way to get some runs on the board.
#Padres lineup: Denorfia RF, Maybin CF, Headley 3B, Guzman LF, Alonso 1B, Hundley C, Hudson 2B, Bartlett SS, Volquez P. v. #Rockies
— Andy Masur (@PadsCast) May 7, 2012
Both of these teams are coming off weekend three-game sweeps and are looking for redemption coming into this series. The Rockies gave up 29 runs over the weekend in their series against the Braves, so they're hoping to take advantage of Petco Park's pitcher-friendly atmosphere to shut down the Padres offense. This should be an interesting series but I think our Padres can put up a good fight.
GO FRIARS!! KEEP THE FAITH!!