Dan Haren hoped to be pitching Arizona into the playoffs.
Instead, he is just trying to get the club out of the National League West
basement.
Haren will try to win at least 15 games for a third straight year this evening
in the Diamondback's continuation of a three-game series with the San Diego
Padres at Chase Field.
Haren, who was 16-8 last year, has reached 14 wins in each of his last five
campaigns and will try to rebound from a loss to the Rockies last time out.
The right-hander gave up five runs on eight hits over eight innings of a 5-1
loss on Sunday, falling to 14-9 with a 2.90 earned run average. He also struck
out eight batters to give him a career-high 208 on the season, passing the 206
he fanned last season.
The 29-year-old righty is 4-1 with a 2.66 ERA in his career versus San Diego,
which he beat on September 15 with eight innings of two-run ball. Haren is 1-0
with a 2.57 ERA in three starts against the Padres this year.
Things could prove difficult for Haren tonight after the Diamondbacks managed
just six hits in Friday night's 4-0 loss, getting shut out by San Diego's
Kevin Correia.
"[Correia] had a little bit better command of his breaking ball, he threw to
the corners a little bit better with that cutter," Arizona manager A.J. Hinch
said. "I think we knew what we were going to get, but I think we got a little
bit comfortable because we've seen him a lot."
Justin Upton had two of Arizona's six hits. Max Scherzer gave up three runs on
five hits and three walks in a five-inning start for Arizona, which now sits 5
1/2 games behind fourth-place San Diego with eight games to play after its
fifth loss in six games.
Correia, meanwhile, went the distance for the first time in his career and
also walked one in addition to the six hits with seven strikeouts.
"I've never had a complete-game shutout so I would have to say it's one of my
better outings in the big leagues," Correia said. "I had all four pitches
working, Throwing strikes with pretty much all of them, the slider was pretty
good, I was throwing it for a lot of strikes."
Adrian Gonzalez and Will Venable each had two hits and an RBI in the win, the
Padres' sixth in seven games.
Wade LeBlanc takes the hill for the Padres and is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA over
four September starts. However, he hasn't received a decision in either of his
last two outings.
Facing Arizona for the first time on September 15, the left-hander gave up a
run on three hits over six innings of his club's eventual 4-2 loss. Then on
Monday, LeBlanc gave up just a solo homer over five innings against the
Pirates in a game San Diego eventually won, 11-6.
The 25-year-old is 2-1 with a 3.93 ERA overall in 2009.
Arizona is 9-7 this season against San Diego, which ended a five-game losing
streak in the series with a 6-5 win in 10 innings on September 16.
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