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Diamondbacks-Padres Preview

Jun 8, 2009 - 5:19 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Arizona (24-32) at San Diego (26-29), 10:05 p.m. EDT

The San Diego Padres are accustomed to getting long outings from Jake Peavy. Instead, the ace is coming off the shortest of his career.

After using nine pitchers and a shortstop in an 18-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Padres may not have much help available if Peavy struggles Monday night in the finale of a four-game set with their NL West rivals.

Peavy (5-6, 4.10 ERA) lasted only one inning in a 10-5 loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday due to a viral upper respiratory infection. The right-hander allowed four runs and three hits with two walks during the shortest outing of his eight-year career.

"Jake said, 'Hey I want to make the start. I'll give you everything I can.'" Padres manager Bud Black said. "It just didn't happen (Tuesday) for him. There are times when the game starts where adrenaline can take over, but it just didn't happen for him. In his defense, he wasn't 100 percent."

San Diego (26-30), though, will likely need him to last a bit longer after Sunday's 9-6, 18-inning loss to Arizona (25-32).

During the defeat, Black used seven relievers before turning to Chad Gaudin - Friday's starter in an 8-0 series-opening loss - for two innings. After that, shortstop Josh Wilson served up a three-run homer to Mark Reynolds in the 18th.

"It's tough because No. 1, he's a position player and you don't want him to get you out, and No. 2, you don't know what he's going to throw," said Reynolds, who is 5 for 14 (.357) with a homer, four RBIs and four walks in this series.

Peavy has thrown a team-high 74 2-3 innings, a category he has led each of the past four seasons. However, he may need some help after going 0-2 with a 2.70 ERA while getting three total runs in his last three home starts against the Diamondbacks.

The Padres are last in baseball with a .235 batting average and have scored 221 runs, ranking only better than San Francisco (217) and Seattle (215). The lineup has been even worse of late, hitting .201 and getting outscored 41-21 while going 1-5 during a seven-game homestand. That includes being no-hit for the last nine innings on Sunday.

The Diamondbacks could also use a long outing from Jon Garland (4-5, 5.34) after employing seven relievers Sunday, while matching the longest game in team history.

Garland is looking for his first win in four starts after going 0-3 with a 7.36 ERA in his last three.

The right-hander, however, was superb Wednesday, yielding one run and four hits with six strikeouts in six innings of a 1-0 road loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That performance came after he lasted just 2 2-3 innings in a 10-6 defeat to Atlanta on May 29, giving up nine runs and nine hits.

"Last game, I think I gave up on myself," Garland told the team's official Web site. "It wasn't there, and I didn't dig deep enough and go find it. I pretty much made up my mind from right after that game that it wouldn't happen to me again the rest of my career."

Garland is 2-1 with a 0.82 ERA in three career starts against the Padres. He beat them again on May 6, allowing three hits in seven scoreless innings of a 3-1 victory.

Arizona hopes to have Justin Upton back in the lineup after he left Sunday's win with an aggravated left shoulder. The right fielder appeared to hurt himself while striking out in the 10th inning.

Upton leads the Diamondbacks with a .320 average and is second with 34 RBIs.