In the Cards

The Padres welcome the Cardinals to town today, beginning a three-game series. The two teams opened the 2011 campaign against each other in St. Louis, with the Padres taking two of three. With the current series being the last meeting between the two this season, the Padres can clinch at least a split of the season series for the first time since 2006 with a win tonight.

With the Cards in town, Ryan Ludwick will face his former team for the third time since being traded to the Padres at the 2010 trade deadline. In seven games vs. the Cardinals since joining the Padres, he has hit .292 with a .452 on-base percentage and .458 slugging percentage. Over his last 10 games this season, Luddy’s bat has come around, hitting .436 (17-for-39) with four home runs, 14 RBI, a .429 OBP and .744 SLG. During that stretch, he has raised his batting average 60 points.

Dustin Moseley takes the hill for the Padres tonight, looking for his second win of the season. He made his Padres debut against the Cardinals on 4/3, working 7.0 innings of one-run ball in the tough-luck loss.

Lineup 5/22

Jason Bartlett is back in there today, the shortstop has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games, batting .353 (18-for-51) with 12 RBI over that stretch.

The Padres have gone 5-2 on Sundays and 11-6 in day games this season…the 11 wins in day games are the second most in the NL behind the Reds (12 wins).

Lineup 5/21

First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. tonight as the Padres take on RHP Michael Pineda and the Mariners.

Batting third is Ryan Ludwick, who’s working on a season-high nine-game hitting streak and batting .457 (16-f0r-35) with four homers and 14 RBI over that stretch.

Right behind Ludwick in the cleanup spot is Brad Hawpe, who hasn’t been too bad himself this month. The left-handed hitter has a .352 (19-for-54) average in 17 games this May, tied for the third best average in the NL this month.

Happy Saturday!

The Padres look to enact revenge and even the series tonight with Clayton Richard taking the hill against Michael Pineda.

Pineda, a rookie who made his Major League debut with the M’s this year, is making his first Interleague start.

Richard, who came up with the White Sox, is making his eighth Interleague start and 22nd overall against the American League. He is 2-1 with a 3.29 ERA all-time in Interleague matchups and 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA all-time against the Mariners (three starts). In two starts against the Mariners last year, Richard went 1-0 while allowing just three runs in 14.0 innings of work.

Here is some light reading for your Saturday afternoon, thanks to the Union-Tribune’s Bill Center:

Padres catchers Rob Johnson and Kyle Phillips each have a special reunion with the M’s in town.

See you at the park tonight. Eric Stonestreet from ABC’s Modern Family is throwing out tonight’s first pitch. He is a strong supporter of Stand Up To Cancer. Happy Saturday!

The rivalry continues, naturally

The Padres host the Mariners for a three-game set that begins tonight. The series against our “natural” rivals (grrrrrrrr) marks the start of this year’s Interleague schedule. In 2011 the Padres will also host the Kansas City Royals (June 27-29) and travel to face the Minnesota Twins (June 17-19), Boston Red Sox (June 20-22) and Mariners (July 1-3).

San Diego went 9-6 against the American League in 2010, posting the first winning record in Interleague Play since going 11-4 in 1999. The Padres are 97-127 all-time in Interleague Play and 35-39 against Seattle Mariners. San Diego took four of six from Seattle last season.

Here’s a preview of the weekend’s Interleague set.

Back with a bang

The Padres pulled off the 1-0 walk-off win tonight thanks to a sacrifice fly by Orlando Hudson in the bottom of the ninth. Hudson, who was reinstated from the disabled list earlier today, now has two game-ending RBI on the season (also 4/13 vs. CIN) and six in his career.

Tonight marked the fourth walk-off win by the Padres this season: also 4/13 vs. CIN, 4/25 vs. ATL and 5/6 vs. ARI.

In other news, Jason Bartlett had his hitting streak snapped at 10 games while Ryan Ludwick went 2-for-4 in extending his season-high streak to eight games. Ludwick is batting .452 (14-for-31) with four home runs and 13 RBI over that stretch.