It’s the conclusion of an early week series between a pair of NL West rivals on the diamond down in southern California. The Arizona Diamondbacks are on the road as they play the final game of a three-game series with the San Diego Padres Wednesday night. In the opening game of the series Monday night, Arizona picked up a 5-0 victory to draw first blood. Which team picks up the win in the finale of the series to leave town with a little bit of momentum on their side? This article was published prior to the conclusion of the middle game of the series Tuesday night, which took place at Petco Park.
Arizona won their second straight and their ninth in the last 11 games as they rolled past San Diego in the opening game of this series Monday night. The Diamondbacks entered Tuesday fourth in the NL West, 27 games behind the Dodgers for the division lead. They were eight games behind the Padres for the final wild card spot in the National League playoff picture. On Monday night, Arizona finished with seven hits in the game with Stone Garrett (two runs, RBI) the lone player with two in the game. He hit his third homer of the season to help the Diamondbacks earn the victory. Ryne Nelson (1-0) was razor sharp in his major league debut, throwing seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Tommy Henry is on the mound for Arizona and makes his seventh start of the season in this contest. He is 3-3 with a 4.83 ERA, a 1.484 WHIP, 16 walks and 23 strikeouts over 31.2 inni ngs of work on the year. Henry was shelled as he took the loss in his last start, which came last Wednesday at home against the Phillies. He allowed seven runs on eight hits with four walks and four strikeouts over four innings in an 18-2 Diamondbacks loss. In his last three starts, Henry is 1-2 with a 5.65 ERA, a 1.81 WHIP, eight walks and 14 strikeouts over 14.1 innings of work. Henry, in his seventh career major league start, pitches against the Padres for the first time here. As a result, this marks his first career start at Petco Park. Henry was 4-4 with a 3.83 ERA, a 1.343 WHIP, 44 walks and 100 strikeouts over 108 innings over 20 starts with Triple-A Reno prior to being called up.