If the Padres are going to end their slide, they may need Andrew Cashner to continue his recent success. Looking for a third consecutive win, Cashner tries to help the Padres avoid a fourth straight loss Saturday night against the Diamondbacks.
San Diego (21-26) was ahead 1-0 and cruising behind starter Eric Stults on Friday until Arizona scored five times in the seventh inning en route to a 5-2 victory. The Padres have lost three of four at Chase Field since winning seven in a row there, and they've been outscored 20-7 during a three-game skid overall.
Carlos Quentin had three hits and Everth Cabrera homered, but San Diego lost for the eighth time in 13 contests following a stretch in which it won 11 of 14.
The Padres hope to get back on track behind Cashner (3-2, 3.02 ERA), who has the same record with a 2.80 ERA in six starts since joining the rotation April 20.
"He's got front-of-the-rotation type of stuff," manager Bud Black told the Padres' official website. "It's a big arm. I think now, he's starting to come into his own."
The right-hander allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 13-4 win over the Nationals on Sunday and has gone 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in his last three starts.
"I think it was efficient, but I definitely think there's still a lot of room for improvement," Cashner said. "I thought I could've executed better in some different situations."
He is 0-0 with a 2.19 ERA in three starts against the D-backs, winners of a season-best three in a row at home.
Paul Goldschmidt's two-run double highlighted the Diamondbacks' seventh-inning rally Friday. Among the NL leaders with a .320 average, the first baseman has gone 8 for 15 with five doubles in the last four home games to raise his average at Chase Field from .229 to .282.
Teammate Wade Miley (3-3, 3.67) will try to avoid a third straight losing start Saturday, but he also has a chance to build on his last outing, a start in which he gave two runs in six innings of a 2-1 loss in Miami on Sunday. Both runs scored in his final inning.
"Just a couple of bad pitches cost you late in the game, especially in a game like that where it's 0-0," said Miley, whose teammates have totaled two runs in his last two starts. "You've got to do better job."
The left-hander allowed four runs and nine hits in five innings of a 7-6 loss to the Padres on May 3. He's gone 1-3 with a 6.28 ERA in five starts against San Diego.
Cabrera, 4 for 9 with a triple against Miley, has batted .342 with six RBIs in his last nine games overall. Quentin, who spent the first two years of his career with Arizona in 2006 and '07, has gone 8 for 16 in last five games at Chase Field.
