Game Preview: Game 145 vs. Colorado Rockies

Our Padres are coming off a sweep of the postseason hopefuls and reigning world champions, the Cardinals. On the day of Jerry Coleman's birthday, and the eve of Jerry Coleman Day in San Diego, our boys will look to continue baseball domination tonight as they welcome the Rockies to Petco Park for a three-game set.

Playing Colorado this weekend will be a change of pace for our Friars, who spent eight of the last nine series facing off against teams all fighting for a spot in the playoffs. However, the Rockies gave us some trouble the last time we played them. We dropped two of three games in Colorado before winning three straight series against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Cardinals. But our boys will have much more of an advantage this time around, playing at home in Petco Park, where the team has thrived lately and collected 21 wins in the last 27 games. Also, they have been killing the National League this past month, going 17-5 overall since August 19th, good for best record in the NL over that span. And at only 6.5 seven games out of the second NL Wild Card spot, keeping up the momentum this series may be crucial for our Padres.

Colorado, on the other hand, is just trying to stay out of the NL cellar and avoid the worst record in Rockies history, which requires them to go .500 over their final 20 games. Wins have proven to be quite elusive for them, however, as they have only earned two victories over their last ten games. Tonight they will send Tyler Chatwood to the mound in his first career start against San Diego. He did make two appearances against us out of the bullpen earlier this season, giving up a combined three earned runs on seven hits in two innings.

Our Padres will counter with Andrew Cashner, who is making his second start since his return from the disabled list. His last time out was last Friday against the Diamondbacks, when he surrendered just two runs on four hits in five innings of work. The Padres went on to win the game, but Cashner got a no-decision. As with Chatwood, this will also be Cashner's first career start against his opponent after making two prior relief appearances against them earlier this season. He pitched an inning and gave up a hit in each of those outings, keeping the Rockies scoreless to preserve Padres leads in both cases.

With 18 games left in our regular season, there is still a chance for our boys to earn a wild card spot. It would take a lot of work to make up the 6.5 seven games needed, but if anyone can do that, it is this team. Our makeshift pitching rotation has carried us along and done surprisingly well to consistently keep us in games, while our offense remains incredibly productive at the plate to secure wins. Logan Forsythe seems to have come into his stride recently, batting .359 with 11 RBI and 11 runs scored over his last 18 games. Chase Headley continues to be not only the hottest hitter on the team, but one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now. He's hitting .292 all-time against Colorado with six homers and 39 RBI.