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The
San Diego Padres
came out of a big weekend series still on top of the wild card standings.
Now, they'll look to put some more distance between themselves and the rest of the league's playoff contenders when they open
a three-game series with the
Colorado Rockies
at Petco Park on Monday.
The Padres (70-66) won the final two games of their three-game weekend set with Cincinnati, including Sunday's 2-1 victory.
They increased their wild card lead to 1 1/2 games over the Phillies and dropped the Reds 2 1/2 games back. Florida trails
by two games.
Josh Bard
singled in the go-ahead run Sunday and 43-year-old starter
David Wells
, acquired Thursday from Boston, threw six strong innings for San Diego, which trails the NL West-leading
Los Angeles Dodgers
by three games. Closer
Trevor Hoffman
earned his 36th save in 40 chances, leaving him six shy
Lee Smith
's career record of 478.
The Padres, though, have struggled in opening games of series having dropped nine of their last 11.
''Anytime you win a series, it's big. But the way we do it, it's not the typical way,'' Monday's starter
Woody Williams
said. ''It would be nice to win the first game of the series, and everyone will be able to relax a little bit.
''Bottom line is we're out here to win games, and winning the first game is huge,''
Williams (7-5, 3.85 ERA) allowed five runs and a season-high 11 hits in five innings of a 7-4 loss at Arizona last Monday.
He had won his previous three starts, earning a 2.49 ERA over that span.
Williams is 3-4 with an 8.06 ERA in 14 career starts against the Rockies - his worst ERA against any team. His only start
against the Rockies this season came on July 27, when he allowed a season-high six runs and eight hits in four innings of
San Diego's 9-8 loss in 10 innings.
Josh Fogg
, who starts for Colorado, gave up six runs and nine hits - including three homers - in four innings in that game against
the Padres. Fogg (9-9, 5.36 ERA) surrendered eight runs in just 1 1-3 innings of Wednesday's 11-3 defeat to the
New York Mets
- the shortest outing by any Rockies starter this season.
''I got four outs, plain and simple,'' he said Wednesday. ''I was 2-0, 3-0 on hitters and didn't get ahead of anybody.''
He was coming off a 12-6 loss on Aug. 24 in which he gave up eight runs in 4 2-3 innings in a 12-6 loss at Milwaukee.
Fogg is 2-1 with a 5.06 ERA in five career starts against the Padres. He has faced them three times this season, going 1-0
with a 5.51 ERA.
The Rockies (63-73) beat the Dodgers 12-5 on Sunday, avoiding a three-game sweep. Rookie
Troy Tulowitzki
had four hits and
Matt Holliday
hit a homer that traveled an estimated 481 feet for Colorado, which is in last place in the West.
The win snapped a nine-game losing streak, and the Rockies have won just four of their last 15 overall.
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