NewsLatos set to kick off Friars' road trip
San Diego (52-74) at Atlanta (66-58), 4 p.m. PT
By Corey Brock / MLB.com
08/23/09 7:50 PM ET
SAN DIEGO -- It's back to the road for the Padres, who after an off-day on Monday, open a six-game road trip on Tuesday with three games in Atlanta, followed by three games in Miami against the Marlins. The Padres, who are 19-40 away from PETCO Park, could ceratinly use some better pitching and longer outings from their starters on the trip. Their starter on Sunday, Cesar Carrillo, allowed four runs on five hits with six walks in two-plus innings in a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Padres only had two victories by starting pitchers on their recently completed seven-game homestand. The Padres will hand the ball to rookie Mat Latos for the first game in Atlanta. Latos (4-3) allowed five runs on seven hits with four walks in 3 2/3 innings, his shortest of seven Major League starts, against the Cubs last week. It was his second rough outing in a row. He allowed seven runs in four innings against St. Louis on Aug. 14. "I feel a little bit of wear and tear," Latos said. "It's not something I can't push through." Latos has now pitched 109 2/3 innings this season between two Minor League stops and his seven Major League starts. He pitched 56 innings last season, and general manager Kevin Towers has said he didn't want to more than double that in 2009. Before Latos' last start against the Cubs, Towers said Latos would likely make this start against Atlanta on Tuesday and then one more in Florida on Aug. 30 before the team shut him down. San Diego manager Bud Black, for one, thought Latos held his velocity fine against the Cubs, who worked into some deep counts against the right-hander, frustrating him to no end. "You look at his fastball, it still had life to hit," Black said. "His breaking ball was OK, the changeup he left up in the zone. He wasn't consistently making pitches with his fastball. Every inning he had to work awfully hard. "The last two games have been a great learning experience for him." Pitching matchupSD: RHP Mat Latos (4-3, 4.82 ERA)
The 22-year-old Latos, a rookie, has struggled in his past two starts. He allowed five runs to the Cubs on Wednesday in 3 2/3 innings, his shortest stint to date. That followed a start against the Cardinals on Aug. 14 in which he allowed seven runs in four innings. The right-hander, who figures to have as few as two starts remaining, also struggled with his command, walking four batters. His ERA has gone from 2.43 to 4.82 after being hit hard by two offensive-minded teams. ATL: RHP Jair Jurrjens (10-8, 2.99 ERA)
Backed by more than a dozen runs of offense, Jurrjens cruised through the middle innings on Wednesday against the Mets, allowing two stray runs but nothing else. He has now allowed four runs on 13 hits over his last 13 innings, striking out 10 and walking two. Jurrjens has faced the Padres once before in his career, last season, striking out eight batters over six innings of one-run ball for the win. Tidbits
Pitcher Steve Garrison, who last season was regarded as one of the top arms in the Padres' farm system, is working his way back from offseason rotator cuff surgery. He made his season debut with Class A Lake Elsinore on Saturday, tossing four scoreless innings. He was 0-2 with a 6.20 ERA in nine games with the Padres entry in the rookie-level Arizona League. ... Triple-A Portland left-hander Wade LeBlanc tossed seven scoreless innings on Saturday and struck out seven in a 5-2 victory over Sacramento. ... Edgar Gonzalez had two hits on Saturday in his fourth game with Lake Elsinore, as he continues his rehabilitation stint from a concussion. Gonzalez is hitting .400 (4-for-10) with one home run and three RBIs so far. He won't likely return to San Diego until after Sept. 1. ... Adrian Gonzalez needs one more RBI to tie Benito Santiago for 10th place on the club's career RBI list.
Tickets
Buy tickets now to catch the game in person.
MLB.TV
Gameday Audio• Gameday
• Official game notes On television
• 4 San Diego On radio
• XPRS 1090, XEMO 860 (Español) Up next
• Wednesday: Padres (Tim Stauffer, 1-6, 3.95) at Braves (Kenshin Kawakami, 6-9, 3.97), 4:00 p.m. PT
• Thursday: Padres (Clayton Richard, 7-3, 4.42) at Braves (Javier Vazquez, 10-9, 3.14), 4:00 p.m. PT
• Friday: Padres (Kevin Correia, 8-10, 4.46) at Marlins (Chris Volstad, 9-10, 4.73), 4:10 p.m. PT
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
