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The
San Diego Padres
seek their fifth straight win. The
Los Angeles Dodgers
hope to avoid a fifth straight loss.
Two teams headed in different directions meet when the Padres (12-15) and Dodgers (12-16) close out their two-game set on
Thursday.
San Diego's
Clay Hensley
(1-2, 5.48 ERA) and the Dodgers'
Brett Tomko
(3-1, 4.20) will meet in a rematch of their last meeting on Saturday.
In that contest, J.D. Drew had an RBI single and
Jeff Kent
and
Nomar Garciaparra
added sacrifice flies as the Dodgers rallied for a 4-2 win. Hensley, who started the season as a reliever, allowed three runs,
three hits and four walks over seven innings.
''When you walk guys like that, it comes back to hurt you,'' Hensley said. ''It's one of the worst things you can do.''
Hensley is 0-2 with 2.63 ERA in three games, including two starts, against the Dodgers.
Tomko also went seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits with two strikeouts to improve to 4-6 with a 4.71 ERA against
his old team. The right-hander was 10-10 with a 4.49 ERA in 2002 during his only season with the Padres.
San Diego scored 10 runs off Los Angeles' relievers in the final three innings of an 11-5 win on Wednesday.
Rookie
Josh Barfield
's two-run homer started a five-run eighth inning.
Geoff Blum
also homered in the eighth and added an RBI single in the ninth, plating Barfield.
''We've been swinging the bats well the last four or five days,'' Barfield said. ''So even when they got that home run, we
knew we were going to come back and score some more. And with the bullpen we have, we're not worried about them adding on.''
San Diego has scored 32 runs during its winning streak.
Center fielder
Mike Cameron
, who missed the Padres' first 17 games because of a strained oblique muscle on his left side, struck out his first three
times up before getting singles in his next three at-bats. He is hitting .375 (6-for-16) in his career against Tomko.
Dodgers catcher
Dioner Navarro
had two hits and three RBI in the loss. He is hitting .429 (12-for-28) in his last nine games.
Los Angeles has not lost five straight since a six-game slide from Sept. 16-22.
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