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Peavy looks to continue dominance of Diamondbacks

Aug 27, 2007 - 1:35 PM Arizona (74-57) at San Diego (70-59) 10:05 pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) - The San Diego Padres are confident that Jake Peavy can help them gain ground in the National League West by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.

Peavy takes the mound in the opener of a four-game series for the reigning NL West champion Padres (70-59), who trail the Diamondbacks (74-57) by three games.

Rookie Chris B. Young homered twice and Jose Valverde notched his NL-leading 40th save as Arizona posted a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. Young has been unconscious in August, hitting nine home runs in his last 12 games.

However, Young and his teammates may have a tough time scoring at all against Peavy (14-5, 2.21 ERA), who is second in the NL in ERA and has not allowed a run over his last 14 innings against Arizona. In his last start Peavy, who is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA against the Diamondbacks, allowed two runs and five hits in six innings with 11 strikeouts in a 6-2 win over New York on Wednesday.

Arizona, which is 24-9 since July 21, sends Livan Hernandez (9-8, 4.96) to the mound. Hernandez had his personal three-game winning streak snapped in his last start when he allowed five runs and six hits in seven innings of a 7-5 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday.

San Diego had its four-game winning streak snapped in a 14-2 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday.