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Padres-Rangers Preview

Jun 27, 2009 - 4:27 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

San Diego (31-40) at Texas (39-32), 8:05 p.m. EDT

The Texas Rangers' offense appears to be heating up after a serious drought.

The Rangers look for their fourth straight victory Saturday night when they continue a weekend interleague series against the San Diego Padres.

Texas (40-32) had been held to two runs or less in four consecutive games beginning last Saturday to Wednesday, and had gone 21 straight contests without scoring more than six runs, their longest such streak since 1990. The Rangers broke out Thursday with a 9-8 win at Arizona in 12 innings and had another big effort Friday in a 12-2 rout of the Padres.

David Murphy and Hank Blalock homered and Elvis Andrus added four hits Friday as Texas built a 10-1 lead after four innings. Blalock went 2 for 4 to snap out of a 3-for-21 slide while Andrus had been 4 for 28 in his previous 11 games before Friday.

"It's fun to watch when they're swinging the bats well," Texas starter Kevin Millwood said.

Rangers first baseman Chris Davis is 5 for 8 in the last two games with four runs scored after enduring a 2-for-23 slump.

While Texas' offense is back on track, it's a different story for San Diego (31-41). The Padres have scored the fewest runs in baseball with 277, and have managed a total of eight during their current three-game losing streak.

One problem for the Padres is that opponents continue to pitch carefully to cleanup hitter Adrian Gonzalez, who was 0 for 2 with two walks Friday. Gonzalez is hitting .219 with two homers and four RBIs over his last 20 games, with 25 walks in that span. He has 61 walks to lead the majors.

San Diego has lost 18 of its last 21 interleague games while also dropping 13 of its last 15 road games against AL foes.

Kevin Correia (4-5, 4.26 ERA), however, has pitched very well for San Diego over his last four outings, going 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA.

Correia yielded one run and two hits over 6 2-3 innings Sunday in a 4-1 victory over Oakland. He had been 0-3 with a 4.24 ERA in his first four career interleague starts.

"He's finding the strike zone with good pitches," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "The walks are down; the hits are down. Hopefully, he realizes that he's capable of doing that each and every time out."

The right-hander has never started against the Rangers.

Rookie Derek Holland (1-4, 5.77) will make his sixth career start for Texas. He is 0-3 with a 5.60 ERA in his first five starts, including 0-2 with a 4.86 ERA since being re-inserted into the rotation June 6 in place of an injured Matt Harrison.

Holland matched a career best with five strikeouts in a season-high seven innings, giving up one run and four hits Saturday in a 2-1 loss at San Francisco. He did not receive a decision.

The left-hander has an 8.83 ERA at home compared to 3.76 on the road.