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Padres-Rockies Preview

May 31, 2009 - 4:54 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

San Diego (24-24) at Colorado (19-28), 3:10 p.m. EDT

A managerial change has put the Colorado Rockies in position to sweep their first series of the year. To do it, they'll have to complete their first home sweep of the San Diego Padres in more than six years.

The Rockies look to do both Sunday when they host the Padres in the finale of their three-game set.

Colorado (20-28) entered this series after getting swept in three games by the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers to fall to the bottom of the division. Clint Hurdle, who guided the team to the 2007 NL pennant, was fired on Friday and replaced with bench coach Jim Tracy

The Rockies have won both games since.

Brad Hawpe hit a walkoff double in the bottom of the ninth to clinch an 8-7 win on Saturday. That was after Colorado won the series opener 3-0 hours after Hurdle's dismissal.

"I definitely think the team's played a lot more relaxed lately," shortstop Clint Barmes said. "You can tell in the dugout there's a lot more energy. It's definitely something we need."

With a victory, the Rockies will sweep their first series since winning three straight at San Francisco from Sept. 23-25. They last swept San Diego at Coors Field in a three-game set from April 18-20, 2003.

Colorado hopes Jorge De La Rosa (0-5, 5.26) can show improvement after failing to get out of the fourth inning in each of his last two outings.

The left-hander lost a career-high six consecutive decisions over seven games from May 24-June 22, 2007. De La Rosa got closer to that dubious mark Monday, getting pulled after recording two outs in the fourth while giving up seven runs in the inning and seven total hits in a 16-6 loss to the Dodgers.

He was victimized by another big inning in his previous start on May 20, allowing six of seven runs in the fourth before exiting with two outs in a 12-4 loss at Atlanta.

"(On Monday) he did it for the first couple of innings, and that inning he just started overthrowing again," Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba told the club's official Web site. "When you start overthrowing, it's going to be ball one, ball two. Then you have to come very much right in the middle."

De La Rosa, who was 10-8 with a 4.92 ERA last year, didn't get the decision in his last start against the Padres on May 4, allowing six runs - three earned - and three hits in five innings of a 9-6 win at San Diego.

The Padres have lost three of their last four following a 10-game winning streak and would like to see Chad Gaudin (1-3, 5.40) rebound from one of his worst performances of the year.

The right-hander surrendered seven runs and five hits with six strikeouts, five walks and a hit batter over 5 1-3 innings of Monday's 9-7, 10-inning win at Arizona.

"What do I take out of it?" Gaudin told the team's official Web site following Monday's loss. "That we won. That's all I care about."

That came five days after he won his first game of the season by yielding one run and five hits in six innings of a 2-1 win over San Francisco.

Gaudin is 0-3 with a 6.26 ERA in five road starts. However, he was impressive at Colorado on April 28, holding the Rockies to three hits with five strikeouts in five innings while not getting a decision in the 4-3 win.