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Myers hoping to avoid homers vs. Padres

Apr 18, 2009 - 4:14 AM By Santosh Venkataraman Stats Senior Writer

San Diego (8-3) at Philadelphia (4-5) 7:05 p.m. EDT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Brett Myers knows exactly what his problem has been through two starts -- the home run ball.

Myers hopes to keep the San Diego Padres in the ballpark Saturday night when the Philadelphia Phillies continue a four-game home series.

In his first two outings, Myers (1-1, 5.54 ERA) has allowed six homers -- the most in baseball. He gave up three last Saturday, although he notched his first win in an 8-4 victory at Colorado by yielding four runs over seven innings.

In his first start on opening day, Myers gave up three homers to Atlanta in a 4-1 loss on April 5.

"I just want to be able to make a mistake and get away with one. That's it, just one, and I'll feel a lot better about it," Myers said. "Right now it's not happening. We won, that's all that matters.

"I felt good. Same thing with the Braves game, make a couple of mistakes and they're hitting them. Nothing really you can do about it, except don't make mistakes, but that's going to happen over the course of a game."

The right-hander has never allowed a homer in three career starts against San Diego, going 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Myers, though, hasn't started versus the Padres since July 24, 2005.

His last appearance against San Diego came on August 25, 2007, as a closer and he gave up two solo homers in the top of the ninth of a 4-3 loss.

The Padres maintained their strong start to the season with an 8-7 win Friday. Scott Hairston homered and hit a go-ahead two-run double in the eighth inning as San Diego rallied from a 7-1 deficit.

"It was a great comeback win against a very good ballclub," Padres manager Bud Black said. "We just hung in there and the bullpen did a great job."

Philadelphia's bullpen gave up three runs over three innings to continue a difficult three-game stretch. Phillies relievers have a 13.50 ERA over the last three games.

San Diego, meanwhile, got 5 1/3 scoreless innings from five relievers to improve to 3-1 on a nine-game road trip.

Chase Utley hit a three-run homer as part of a five-run first inning for Philadelphia, which has lost two straight since a three-game winning streak.

Struggling leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins went 1-for-4 to raise his average from .111 to .125. Rollins has five hits in 40 at-bats, has scored a total of three runs and is 3-for-16 (.188) in his career against Shawn Hill, who will start for San Diego on Saturday.

Hill (1-0, 3.60) won his Padres debut by allowing two runs in five innings in a 69-pitch outing in a 7-3 victory over San Francisco on April 10.

"My arm strength isn't quite where I want it to be. I'd like to get stronger. I feel like I'm still playing catchup at this point," Hill told the Padres' official Web site.

The right-hander is 2-2 with a 5.08 ERA in five career outings against Philadelphia.