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The Padres ended their three-game losing streak and evened up the series with a victory last night. This morning, Ian Kennedy will try to follow up his solid Padres debut with another strong outing to help San Diego to a series win at Great American Ballpark. Kennedy has pitched very well in three career starts against the Reds. He won all three while keeping his ERA to just 1.27. He last faced them in June of 2012 and kept them to just one run in eight innings of work while striking out seven.
The struggling Padres offense is going to need to be on its game again today to help Kennedy with some run support. Last night they put together three runs, with the help of some miscues by Reds pitching and defense. In the four games so far in Everth Cabrera's absence, the team has only scored nine runs on 24 hits. They'll need to continue learning to make up for the loss of Cabrera, as well a that off the injured Carlos Quentin, who hit the 15-day disabled list on Friday (retroactive to July 31st).
Hopefully for them, Reds starter Mike Leake will continue to struggle as he takes the mound in today's series finale. The righty had one of the worst game of his career in his most recent start. He gave up four runs in the first inning alone and seven runs (a season high) altogether in five innings against the Cardinals. But aside from that putting, Leake has been outstanding this season. In the 14 starts prior to his outing against St. Louis, he had gone 8-2 while posting a 1.82 ERA. That 14-game stretch ended with a strong performance in San Diego, where he kept the Padres to just four hits in seven shutout innings, though his offense failed to back him up and he wound up with a no-decision as the Reds would end up losing 2-1.
Cincinnati's offense had trouble scoring last night as well, with their only run coming off the bat of Brandon Phillips. The loss snapped a three-game overall winning streak and a four-game home winning streak for the Reds.
The Padres and Reds will wrap up their series at 10:10 this morning.