Major League Baseball

Rockies, Giants bearing down on Padres

Published Sep. 6, 2010 4:34 a.m. ET

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The San Diego Padres can hear footsteps in the NL West.

And it’s not just the second-place San Francisco Giants who have the Padres looking over their shoulder. The third-place Colorado Rockies won’t go away quietly.

After losing back-to-back games in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday, and blowing a four-run lead in a 12-11 makeup loss to Philadelphia at Coors Field on Thursday, the Rockies rekindled hope for the postseason, making the fast-fading Padres the victim of Colorado’s first road series sweep of the season.

The losses extended San Diego’s losing streak to 10 games, equaling the third longest in franchise history. It’s their worst slide since they lost a club-record 13 in a row in 1994. They suffered an 11-game losing streak in 1969, their first year of existence.

"We have to find a way to get our confidence back," said Padres right-hander Jon Garland. "We’re almost waiting for it to happen instead of making it happen. We’re on our heels. It’s not going to happen that way."

What's happening? A team that was playing on house money when it surged in the final two months last season and approached this season as if it had nothing to lose — after all, some experts even ranked them 30th among the 30 big-league teams coming out of spring training — suddenly is feeling expectations.

And it isn’t comfortable.

The Padres on Monday enjoy their 136th day atop the NL West, but they also are a team showing the signs of a season-long grind on a relatively young rotation in which five pitchers have combined to start 132 of 135 games.

At the All-Star break, the rotation had a 3.46 ERA. Since the All-Star break the rotation ERA is 4.00. During the 10-game slide the Padres have been outscored 55-23.

And history isn’t real kind to teams that run off 10-game losing streaks. The only teams to have suffered through that kind of a stretch and survived to play in the postseason were the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1951 New York Giants.

To try to counter the rotation fatigue, the Padres did bring up rookie Cory Luebke, who suffered the loss to the Rockies in his big-league debut on Friday, but will be back in the rotation against the Dodgers this week, replacing Wade LeBlanc.

LeBlanc has allowed 16 runs in 13 innings in his last three starts. Even with that move, though, the Padres are still forced to start Kevin Correia, who has allowed 20 runs in 12 innings in his last three starts.

"We have to get our swagger back," admitted manager Bud Black, whose team has been in such a funk that closer Heath Bell has appeared only once in 15 games and hasn’t had a save opportunity since Aug. 19.

The team with swagger is the Rockies, which is no surprise to Bruce Bochy, manager of the San Francisco Giants. Bochy's team took two of three from the Rockies last week and with a win Sunday night against the Dodgers closed to just a game back of the Padres in the NL West, and three games in front of the third-place Rockies.

The concern about the Rockies was enhanced when Aaron Cook came back from the disabled list to win Friday’s opener against the Padres and flashed his dynamite sinker in retiring 15 batters on ground balls, three on strikeouts and one on a pop-up.

"They have proven they know what September is all about," Bochy said about the Rockies. "As long as they are alive they are a factor because they have shown they enjoy this time of year."

The Rockies earned the respect by their rally from a 20-32 start last season to claim the NL wild card, thanks in part to an 18-9 record in September, and from 2007 when they won 14 of the final 15 regular-season games, then swept Philadelphia and Arizona in the postseason to advance to the World Series for the first time.

And the Rockies haven‘t forgotten either experience, which manager Jim Tracy was quick to reinforce on Sunday afternoon.

"This is not unexplored territory for us," he said. "We have been on this platform before."

In addition to experience, what the Rockies also have on their side is that 16 of their final 26 games are at Coors Field, where they are 43-22, second-best home record in the NL. They also can help their own case because they host both the Padres and Giants for three-game visits. The Giants have only 12 of their 25 remaining games at home.

The Padres, however, continue to say the right things.

"This (losing streak) could be good for us," Bell said. "We’re hungry again, like we were at the beginning of the year."

WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

A potential preview of the first round of the AL playoffs is on tap in Texas this weekend when the AL West-leading Rangers host the AL East-leading New York Yankees in a three-game series.

There is a little extra edge to the Rangers-Yankees series. In the three times the Rangers have advanced to the postseason — 1996, 1998 and 1999 — they have been eliminated by the Yankees each time. In fact, after winning Game 1 in the 1996 AL Division Series, the Rangers have lost nine postseason games in a row to the Yankees.

The Yankees have won four of five from the Rangers this year.

The Rangers are expected to start lefty Cliff Lee on Sunday. Lee has been out since Aug. 31 with back stiffness and was given an injection to alleviate pain last week. He initially was set to pitch Tuesday in Toronto, but with the Rangers in command in the AL West they would rather give Lee extra time to get healthy for the postseason.

Lee has struggled since Texas acquired him from Seattle, going 2-5 with a 4.69 ERA in 11 games.

WHAT’S ON TAP?

In addition to the Yankees and Rangers meeting next weekend, this week’s schedule includes:

• St. Louis makes a weekend trip to Atlanta.

• The Giants play at San Diego next weekend.

• Colorado hosts Cincinnati in four games beginning Sunday.

• Tampa Bay makes three-game visits to Boston and Toronto.

• Minnesota opens the weekend with three games against Kansas City, which then travels to Chicago for a weekend visit with the White Sox.

• Philadelphia hosts Florida in a four-game series that includes a day-night doubleheader on Monday, and visits the Mets for the weekend.

ROSTER WATCH

• Among the many moves when rosters expanded on Wednesday were the activation of St. Louis RHP Jeff Suppan, Texas 2B Ian Kinsler and San Francisco LHP Dan Runzler and SS Edgar Renteria from the disabled list.

• The Yankees activated 3B Alex Rodriguez from the disabled list Sunday, and Cincinnati activated SS Orlando Cabrera on Friday.

• OF Brad Hawpe appeared in three minor league games, going 1-for-6 with three walks, and then was activated for Tampa Bay, which is using him as a left-handed DH. Hawpe went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in his Rays debut Wednesday but came back on Saturday to hit a home run in an 8-4 win against Baltimore.

MEDICAL REPORT

• Texas OF Josh Hamilton figures to be out at least a week after running into the outfield fence in Minnesota on Saturday and suffering bruised ribs. Hamilton said his left elbow was pinned against his torso as he hauled in a Delmon Young fly ball. Hamilton, who is hitting .361 with 31 home runs and 97 RBI, already was slowed by an achy knee and stiff back.

• Cincinnati RHP Mike Leake will have a mound session on Monday and is possible for a start on Thursday in Colorado. He’s been slowed by right shoulder fatigue.

• San Diego RHP Chris Young made his second rehab appearance on Sunday and worked 3 1/3 hitless innings for Triple-A Las Vegas.

• Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte is expected to make a rehab start at Double-A Trenton Wednesday.

ADDING THEM UP

• 18 consecutive at-bats without a base hit for St. Louis 1B Albert Pujols before he had an infield single Saturday. It’s the longest hitless streak of his career. Pujols was hitless again Sunday, extending his current funk to 1-for-23.

• 10 consecutive starts without a victory for San Francisco LHP Barry Zito. He is 0-7 in those 10 games. Zito opened the season 7-2 but is 1-9 since.

• 55 errors committed by Cincinnati, fewest in the majors. The Chicago Cubs have committed a major-league-leading 111 errors, one more than twice as many as the Reds.

FINAL WORD

"I think (Roy Halladay) will handle the postseason well. I like our chances. And the best thing about it is him and (Roy) Oswalt have both pitched on short rest. They have that experience, and I think that's very big. That's a plus for us, because they've already done it." — Phillies manager Charlie Manual on the stretch run with his two pitching aces.
 

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