MLB Game Preview - San Diego at Arizona

Mon Sep 2, 2019 4:10 PM EDT

When the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres last met on May 22, they were vying for second place in the National League West and were within shouting distance of the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.

That was then.

The Diamondbacks enter the resumption of the season series Monday in Phoenix on a roll after winning six of their last seven games to re-enter the NL wild-card race.

The Padres, however, have slumped to fourth place and are likely to miss the playoffs for the 13th straight season.

Arizona right-hander Mike Leake (10-10, 4.67 ERA) will oppose San Diego rookie right-hander Cal Quantrill (6-5, 3.99) on Monday afternoon.

Arizona's season-best, six-game winning streak was broken Sunday, when the Dodgers belted four solo homers in a 4-3 victory. The defeat prevented the Diamondbacks from recording a franchise-first, four-game sweep of the Dodgers.

The Diamondbacks remained 3 1/2 games behind the Cubs for the second NL wild-card spot, but they were two outs from moving another game closer before Cody Bellinger homered to tie Sunday's game. Joc Pederson homered in the 11th to win it for Los Angeles.

"We have to make sure to remember, before we put on our chin straps and get after the San Diego Padres, that we are in a really good spot," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "We are playing good baseball, and I don't want this outcome to change anything. I won't let it.

"My intentions are, we're not going anywhere. We are going to play our best baseball for the remainder of the season."

San Diego has won seven of 10 in the season series, but a lot has changed since the D-backs scored five runs while being swept in a three-game set at Petco Park from May 20-22.

Arizona has three new starting pitchers and has moved forward with breakout seasons by Eduardo Escobar and Ketel Marte.

The Padres have been unable to sustain their early success despite a career year from closer Kirby Yates, who has a major-league-high 39 saves.

San Diego dropped a season-low 10 games under .500 before winning the final two contests the last two games at San Francisco over the weekend. The Padres earned three victories in the four-game series.

"Just keep grinding it out," Padres third baseman Manny Machado told the San Diego Union-Tribune over the weekend. "If we can do that we, put ourselves in a good situation and good momentum for next year.

"We know what we have coming up next year, so it's just a matter of playing it out and not taking these last games for granted. Because come next year we're going to be playing for something around this time."

Padres rookie infielder Ty France hit two homers in an 8-4 victory Sunday.

Leake, who is 1-2 with a 6.59 ERA since Arizona acquired him at the trade deadline, made the most effective of his five starts with the Diamondbacks in his most recent appearance. He gave two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings of a 3-2 victory at San Francisco last Tuesday.

Leake has served up 34 homers this year, eight in 28 2/3 innings with Arizona.

Quantrill is coming off his least effective outing, having surrendered eight runs in 4 1/3 innings of a 9-0 loss to the Dodgers last Tuesday. Despite that defeat, he is 4-3 with a 3.22 ERA in his past eight games (seven starts) while holding opponents to a .210 batting average.

--Field Level Media