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Red-hot Padres put streak on the line against Bucs

(Sports Network) - The National League wild card-leading San Diego Padres will seek to extend their season-best six-game winning streak this afternoon, when they conclude a four-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Petco Park.

The Padres will be trying to sweep the Pirates at home in a four-game series for the first time in franchise history. They did sweep Pittsburgh at Petco Park in three games from September 22-24 of last season. San Diego last took every contest of a four-game set with the Pirates back on August 8-11, 1996.

San Diego extended their winning streak in dramatic fashion on Wednesday. Trailing by one, Adrian Gonzalez doubled with one out in the ninth before Kevin Kouzmanoff walked with two down. Scott Hairston then drove an 0-1 pitch from Matt Capps over the wall for a game-winning three-run homer and a 5-3 victory.

Gonzalez had a pair of hits and drove in two runs for San Diego, which is 2 1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia in the wild card standings but still one game behind Arizona for the top spot in the NL West Division. The Phils lost to St. Louis yesterday, while the D-backs downed the Giants.

Chris Young allowed three runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts over six innings for San Diego. Cla Meredith tossed a perfect top of the ninth for the win.

Nyjer Morgan ended 2-for-3 and scored twice for the Pirates, who lost their fifth straight game. Starting pitcher Ian Snell allowed two runs -- one earned -- on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts over seven innings for Pittsburgh.

Matt Morris will make his 10th start for the Pirates since coming over at the trade deadline from San Francisco tonight. He is 2-3 with a 6.18 earned run average with Pittsburgh and is coming off a brutal outing in Houston on Saturday.

Morris was lit up for seven runs and nine hits in just 3 1/3 innings of work against the Astros, falling to a combined 9-10 on the year with a 4.84 ERA.

The right-hander has faced the Padres 19 times in his career, 17 of those starts, and is 8-3 with a save and 2.99 ERA in that span. He has won both of his starts against San Diego this season, while pitching to a 2.38 ERA.

Brett Tomko will make his second straight start for the Padres tonight. After beginning the season with the Dodgers, Tomko came to San Diego after being released by Los Angeles and made three relief outings before starting against the Giants on Saturday.

He earned another turn in the rotation by tossing six scoreless innings against San Francisco, working around four hits to go along with five strikeouts in posting a win.

The victory improved Tomko to 3-11 with a 5.40 ERA in 37 total appearances (16 starts) this season. The right-hander is 7-6 with four complete games and a 4.39 ERA in 21 career appearances (18 starts) versus the Pirates.

San Diego won two of three games against Pittsburgh at PNC Park from May 29-31 of this season. The Padres are 14-5 in their last 19 encounters with Pittsburgh.

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