• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Athletics-Padres Preview

Jun 20, 2009 - 7:17 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Oakland (29-37) at San Diego (29-37), 10:05 p.m. EDT

Little has gone right for the Oakland Athletics during their current interleague road swing. A weekend stay in San Diego may help salvage the trip.

Coming off a rare productive effort at the plate, the A's look for a second straight victory over the Padres on Saturday night at Petco Park.

Orlando Cabrera's two-run double highlighted a three-run eighth inning and helped give Oakland a 7-5 comeback victory in Friday's opener.

"I was feeling really confident at the plate," said Cabrera, who had three RBIs and is 4 for 11 (.364) in his last three games.

With the victory, the last-place A's (29-37) improved to 2-5 on the nine-game trip that started with them getting swept by San Francisco and losing two of three to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

While Oakland is 3-7 versus NL opponents in 2009, it's fared better than San Diego (29-37), which has lost 17 of its last 21 interleague games since the start of last season. The Padres snapped a major league record 13-game interleague losing streak with a 4-3, 10-inning victory over Seattle on Thursday.

San Diego appeared to be headed to a second straight victory, but couldn't hold a two-run lead as Oakland scored four times in the final two innings.

Jason Giambi drove in two runs and Kurt Suzuki added three hits for the A's, who broke out after scoring 14 runs in their previous six contests.

One night after 24-year-old Josh Outman left after 1 2-3 innings because of tightness in his arm, the A's turn to 21-year-old rookie Brett Anderson.

Anderson (3-7, 5.77 ERA) gave up six runs and eight hits while striking out six in four innings of a 7-1 loss at San Francisco on Sunday. The left-hander is 0-2 with an 10.24 ERA in his last two starts after throwing seven scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox on June 4.

"I just have to go back to throwing on both sides of the plate and kind of start from square one," Anderson told the Athletics' official Web site.

Anderson's rough stretch could end against the Padres, who have scored 19 runs while losing six of their last seven.

Tony Gwynn Jr. had three hits and Kevin Kouzmanoff drove in a pair of runs Friday for San Diego. Playing for the same club as his Hall of Fame father of the same name, the younger Gwynn is batting .329 (28 for 85) in 25 games since being traded to San Diego from Milwaukee on May 21.

Adrian Gonzalez, who had a double and drew four walks, has reached base in a career-high 11 consecutive plate appearances.

On Friday, Wade LeBlanc was called up from Triple-A Portland to start for the injured Chris Young. The Padres are again expected to make a call to the minors and bring up 32-year-old rookie right-hander Walter Silva (0-0, 6.52 ERA) to start in place of ailing ace Jake Peavy.

Silva made two starts to open the season, but was placed on the DL with a strained right forearm and then optioned to the minors.