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The
San Diego Padres
have a huge hurdle to overcome if they hope to maintain their lead in the NL West.
The Padres will square off with NL Cy Young Award hopeful
Brandon Webb
when they wrap up a three-game series with the
Arizona Diamondbacks
at Petco Park on Thursday.
The Padres (79-72) lost 8-2 to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, but maintained their half-game lead in the division as second-place
Los Angeles lost 6-4 to Pittsburgh.
San Diego moved into first place Sunday for the first time since Aug. 9, and after relinquishing the lead the following day,
took it back Tuesday with a 5-2 win in the opener of this series.
Webb, however, would no doubt love to play the role of spoiler in the finale. He threw his second straight complete game Friday,
allowing six hits in a 5-1 win over St. Louis.
Webb (16-6, 2.92 ERA), tied with the Dodgers'
Brad Penny
for the league lead in victories, was coming off a 3-0 victory over St. Louis. He leads the league with five complete games,
and admitted he is thinking about the
Cy Young
.
''It's something that's definitely in the back of my mind that I would like to accomplish this year or any other year,'' he
said. ''I definitely want to try my best to win games for the team and hopefully that will get some consideration.''
The right-hander is 3-3 with a 3.43 ERA in 12 starts against the Padres, including 2-0 with a 3.80 ERA in three starts this
season.
''It's not like he's just going out there and finishing up the season. With all that's riding on this - I'm not going to say
what because I can be a superstitious person,'' manager
Bob Melvin
said, alluding to the
Cy Young
. ''To be at this point of time in the season and looking like he's at his best right now is pretty impressive.''
Webb gave up three runs in 7 1-3 innings of a 7-4 win over San Diego on Aug. 28, one day after the death of his close friend
in a Kentucky plane crash.
Woody Williams
(9-5, 3.69 ERA), who will face Webb again Thursday, allowed five runs and a season-high 11 hits - including two homers - and
was charged with the loss.
Williams won his second straight start Saturday, giving up one run in six innings of an 11-2 victory over Los Angeles. The
40-year-old right-hander was coming off a 10-2 victory over San Francisco on Sept. 10, when he also yielded one run in six
innings. He's 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA over his last seven starts.
Williams is 6-7 with a 3.31 ERA in 19 starts against the Diamondbacks and 1-2 with a 4.19 ERA in three outings against them
this season.
The Diamondbacks (72-79), winners of four of their last six games, tied their season high with 18 hits Wednesday.
Alberto Callaspo
went 3-for-5 with three RBIs for Arizona.
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