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Game Thread: 07/20 Padres vs. Rockies

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Our Padres have now won both series since the All Star Break and tonight we will welcome our NL West rivals from Colorado to Petco Park for the opening of a three-game set. The Rockies are 2 1/2 games back of us in the division standings, and we will try to make that gap even bigger this series.

Jason Marquis is set to make the start in the series opener tonight. In his last time out, against the Dodgers, he gutted out a great performance, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks in six innings despite battling a stomach flu. He led off the game by loading the bases, but settled down pretty nicely after that and kept us in it before handing it over to the bullpen, who has been spectacular lately. Together, our relief corps has shut out opponents for 14 1/3 straight innings and have only given up three runs in the last eight games. In that span, they've collected 30 strikeouts while keeping opponents' batting average to a modest .145.

The key will be to get our offense to back up our pitching staff. They scored eight runs in two games during the Astros series, but in last night's series finale could only give Edinson Volquez one run of support in his complete-game one-hit effort. Our lineup will be facing Drew Pomeranz, who is 1-4 on the season and is coming off a 5-1 loss against the Phillies. In 5 innings of work, he gave up five earned runs on five hits and two walks. In his two starts prior to that, however, he only gave up three hits and one unearned run over 12 1/3 innings. Pomeranz has the lowest opponents' batting average of all Rockies starters, but hopefully our Padres can put some runs together and keep our win streak going to start off this series.

Hopefully our boys can pull through tonight and not allow the Rockies to gain any ground on us in the standings. Keep moving along on our Road to October!

GO FRIARS!! KEEP THE FAITH!!