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Padres eye sweep of Rockies

Aug 13, 2014 - 2:51 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The San Diego Padres have been on a roll of late and will shoot for a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies Wednesday at Petco Park.

The Padres have won four in a row and 10 of their last 13 games. They took Monday's series opener with Colorado by a 4-3 score, then posted a 4-1 triumph last night behind rookie pitcher Odrisamer Despaigne.

Despaigne fired seven shutout innings, scattered five hits, struck out eight batters and walked two to bounce back from some rough starts.

"He was really sharp today with his off-speed pitches," said San Diego manager Bud Black about Despaigne. "But pitchers have to base their games off their fastballs and he did a really good job with that today."

Chris Nelson drove in two runs, while Abraham Almonte and Alexi Amarista each had an RBI. Padres first baseman Yonder Alonso left Tuesday's game with a right forearm strain and is expected to have an MRI.

San Diego, which will begin a 10-game road trip Thursday against St. Louis, Los Angeles and Arizona, hopes Ian Kennedy can pull off the sweep when he takes the mound this evening. Kennedy is 8-10 with a 3.51 ERA and suffered a loss his last time out in a 2-1 defeat at Pittsburgh on Friday. Kennedy was reached for two runs -- one earned -- in six innings.

Kennedy has made 17 career starts against the Rockies, going 4-4 with a 2.77 ERA, and is 3-5 in 12 road assignments. The right-hander and former All-Star is 1-1 in two starts against Colorado this season.

Colorado has lost 13 of its last 16 games and is only 1-4 on its six-game road trip. The Rockies were led by two hits apiece from Justin Morneau and Corey Dickerson in Tuesday's loss. Morneau had his sixth consecutive multi-hit game.

Yohan Flande got the start for the Rockies and fell to 0-5 after he permitted two runs in six innings of work.

"We had a couple of opportunities early," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "We didn't get the big hit. You have to play a clean game, especially here, where it's always going to be tough to score runs."

The Rockies will return to Coors Field after tonight's game to host Cincinnati, Kansas City and Miami.

Taking the mound for Colorado Wednesday will be Tyler Matzek, who is just 2-7 with a 5.32 earned run average, Matzek has lost three straight starts and allowed three runs in five innings of a 5-3 loss at Arizona on Friday.

Matzek is 0-4 with a 6.00 ERA in seven road games (6 starts) and lost to the Padres back on July 7 in a 6-1 defeat. He was reached for five runs and eight hits in six innings with four walks and four K's.

Colorado and San Diego have split 12 meetings this season.