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Padres-Reds Preview

Jul 27, 2009 - 8:52 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

San Diego (38-61) at Cincinnati (44-53), 7:10 p.m. EDT

Coming off a winless road trip, a visit from one of the worst teams in baseball could help get the Cincinnati Reds back on track.

The Reds try to avoid losing their seventh straight game Monday night when they open a four-game series against the lowly San Diego Padres.

After being two games out of first place July 4, Cincinnati (44-53) has gone 5-14 to drop 7 1/2 back of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. This past week was especially disappointing for the Reds, who were swept in three- game series by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cubs.

In Sunday's 5-2 loss to Chicago, Cincinnati couldn't catch a break.

Starter Micah Owings left after three innings due to shoulder tightness, right fielder Chris Dickerson hurt his shoulder while trying to make a catch and Edwin Encarnacion was called out at the plate even though replays showed he was safe.

"Man, Dickerson looks like he's hurt pretty good," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Micah's shoulder is barking. Edwin was safe at the plate. Every day there's a call. Every day."

Dickerson and Owings went on the 15-day disabled list Monday.

Cincinnati is hoping to get things turned around against the sputtering Padres (38-61), who are a major league-worst 4-19 this month.

San Diego is coming off Sunday's 3-2, 10-inning loss at Washington, its 30th defeat in the last 39 games away from Petco Park.

Slumping slugger Adrian Gonzalez played in his 306th consecutive game, breaking the Padres record he previously shared with Steve Garvey, but took little satisfaction in that milestone.

"That's not really that important to me," said Gonzalez, who is batting .177 (17 for 96) with one home run in his last 30 games. "I just wish we would have won the game."

A three-game home sweep of the Reds from May 15-17 initiated a season-high 10-game winning streak for the Padres, but they're a major league-worst 15-39 since that run ended.

Scheduled starter Josh Geer (1-6, 5.84 ERA) has been in the middle of San Diego's woes over the past two months.

Since beating the Cubs on May 23, Geer is 0-5 with a 6.28 ERA in 10 starts. The right-hander has pitched well at times, making five quality starts in that span, but he's received eight runs of support in those outings. In Wednesday's 5-0 loss to Florida, he allowed two runs and six hits in six innings.

This will be Geer's first career start against the Reds, who counter with the struggling Homer Bailey (1-2, 7.63).

After permitting seven runs and six hits with four walks in 5 1-3 innings of a 9-6 loss to Milwaukee on July 16, Bailey was tagged for a career-high nine runs - six earned - and eight hits in a season-low 2 2-3 innings of Tuesday's 12-3 loss to the Dodgers.

"It's just one of those things that you just have to wake up the next day and go back to square one," Bailey told the Reds' official Web site.

Since the start of last season, the right-hander is 1-8 with a 7.79 ERA in 14 starts with the Reds losing 13 of those games.

In his only career start against the Padres on July 21, 2008, Bailey allowed three runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings of Cincinnati's 6-4 loss.