Game Thread: 07/06 Padres vs. Reds

For a while last night, it felt like the fire from our 7-3 road trip was burning out and our Padres would once again become a victim of a lifeless offense. But patience paid off and some late inning heroics gave us the win to extend our season-long win streak to six games.

Tonight our boys will try to keep that magic going and secure a victory in game 2 against the Reds. Like Volquez last night, Kip Wells will make the start for us against his former team, and the last team with which he played at the major league level before coming to San Diego. In Wells' last start, he got his first major league win since 2009 when he played for Cincinnati. He pitched spectacularly, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball and allowing only six hits in the unforgiving hitter's park that is Coors Field. Tonight he will work in a much less daunting pitching environment, and hopefully he can get some offensive support to back up some more shutout innings.

Pitching for the Reds will be Bronson Arroyo, who is coming off a rough outing in San Francisco. He gave up two runs on seven hits in six innings, but threw 113 pitches. Arroyo hasn't won a game against our Padres since 2008, and he has gone 0-3 in five games against us since then. And the Reds offense haven't been as reliable as usual in recent games. They've only managed a single run in each game of their current three-game slide and have hit a measly .170 in that time. Combined with our boys' current hot streak, the Reds have an uphill battle ahead of them tonight.

We are riding our longest win streak since April 2010 when we won eight in a row. It will be a strong statement if we can go into the All Star Break on a high note, and a win tonight will ensure at the very least a series split against the Reds. Let's hope our boys can keep doing what they're doing and give us fans some more much-needed cause for celebration.

GO FRIARS!! KIP THE FAITH!!