Phillies at Padres
Following a series loss against the best team in baseball, the San Diego Padres return home to take on the sport's worst when they begin a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday. The Padres took the opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers before dropping two straight over the weekend, including a 6-4 setback on Sunday despite two home runs by Cory Spangenberg.
It was the third straight series loss for San Diego, which has been held to four runs or fewer in seven of its last eight contests. Spangenberg and leadoff hitter Manuel Margot combined to go 10-for-24 with four homers in the series at Dodger Stadium. The Phillies lost three of four at home to the New York Mets and enter their seven-game trek with the worst road record in the majors (19-41). They've won the season series 10 straight times, but the Padres - who took two of three at Philadelphia in July - can end that streak with just one victory in this set.
TV: 10:10 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, FSN San Diego
PITCHING MATCHUP: Phillies RH Jerad Eickhoff (3-7, 4.45 ERA) vs. Padres LH Travis Wood (2-4, 6.71)
Eickhoff's rebound from a rocky first few months continued at Atlanta on Wednesday, when he defeated the Braves by allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings. He is 3-0 with a 3.10 ERA over a span of seven starts, which includes five scoreless frames and a season high-tying eight strikeouts in a home victory over the Padres on July 9. The Indiana native is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three career starts against San Diego.
Wood has made three starts since being acquired from Kansas City, allowing 11 earned runs in 16 innings while registering 19 strikeouts. He recorded his second seven-strikeout performance with the Padres in Wednesday's loss to Cincinnati, which reached the veteran for six runs - five earned - in five frames. The 30-year-old owns a tidy 2.11 ERA in 10 career games (six starts) against the Phillies.
WALK-OFFS
1. Philadelphia CF Odubel Herrera went 1-for-2 in Sunday's 6-2 loss to the Mets to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 16 games, the longest in a single season by a Phillie since Raul Ibanez had an 18-game run in 2010.
2. Margot has recorded six RBIs and scored six runs in his last nine contests.
3. The Phillies are 48-23 against the Padres since the start of the 2007 season.