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Our boys began the series yesterday by going on an offensive tear and scoring 11 runs off Reds pitching to earn the win. Then came all the usual jokes from Padres fans about how they used up all their offense in the first game of the series and should've saved some runs for the remaining three games. Also the ones about how Chase Headley increased his trade value by going 1-for-2 with four walks. Well guess what. Headley wasn't traded. And today we'll see if our offense still has some runs left in them.
They'll need to find a way to get to Homer Bailey, who is hoping to cap a great July with a win against our Padres today. In five starts this month, he has recorded four wins and a no-decision. And in case he needed even more confidence going into today's game, he'd just have to look at his career numbers against San Diego. The right-hander is undefeated, boasting four wins in six career starts against our Friars. His most recent outing against us was a 6 2/3 inning win in San Diego earlier this month where, despite giving up a homer to Chris Denorfia on his first pitch of the game, he struck out eight Padres and allowed only two runs on seven hits.
Our Padres will try to carry over some of the momentum from yesterday's run parade while looking to Jason Marquis to keep the Reds at bay. Marquis is coming off a phenomenal start at AT&T Park, where he earned his third straight win by holding the Giants to three runs (two unearned) on three hits and a walk. He struck out eight batters in the process and at one point in the game retired 16 in order. He didn't fare as well in his start against the Reds earlier this month, when he gave up three runs on seven hits (two of which were home runs) in five innings of work. Still that wasn't a completely terrible outing. He didn't give up any walks and struck out five. Hopefully he'll do better against Cincinnati today and our boys can give him some run support to work with.
— Ted Mendenhall II (@TedMendenhall) July 31, 2012
#Padres lineup 7/31 vs#Reds: Amarista 4, Venable 9, Headley 5, Quentin 7, Alonso 3, Baker 2, Maybin 8, Cabrera 6, Marquis 1.
Our boys have already made this the team's best month of the season, and first month with a winning record. Another win today will put our Friars at 16-10 in July. Gotta make up for dropping three of four against these Reds at Petco Park earlier this month and clinch at least a series split today. Get a losing streak started for Cincy while we collect another victory to get us closer to October.
GO FRIARS!! KEEP THE FAITH!!