Petco Park

8:35 p.m. PETCO Park, San Diego. TV: Comcast SportsNet. Radio: WPHT (1210-AM); WUBA (1480-AM) Spanish. Pitching matchup: Phillies RHP Joe Blanton (0-1, 7.27) vs. Padres RHP Tim Stauffer (0-1, 3.27) Blanton vs. Padres: He had a rough couple starts to open the season, allowing 12 runs in 10 innings before bouncing back Monday days ago against the Brewers. The veteran righthander is 2-1 with a 4.24 ERA in three career starts at Petco Park. Last year, he held the Padres to one run in six innings in his only start in San Diego.

No record was safe from Chipper Jones and the Atlanta Braves, who made spacious Petco Park play like a bandbox. Jones hit a two-run homer yesterday to give him an extra-base hit in 14 straight games, tying a 79-year-old big-league record, and the visiting Braves roughed up Jake Peavy during a wild 10-5 win that gave them a three-game sweep of NL West-leading San Diego. On a day when both managers, a bench coach and a player were ejected for arguing balls and strikes, the Braves won their season-high fifth straight game, and for the ninth time in 11 games.

Milt Thompson has been searching for a miracle solution for the last nine weeks. That search continues. After losing four straight to the Dodgers, the Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 1-0, Friday night, but Thompson would like more production. Thompson is in his fourth season as the Phillies' hitting coach. The Phillies ranked second in the National League in scoring during his first season in 2005, and first in the league in scoring in 2006 and 2007. But while the Phillies rank fourth in the league in scoring this season, they rank 12th in the league in runs scored per game since June 13 (4.1)

SAN DIEGO - Natalie Gulbis gripped the club, bent her legs, and unleashed a lacquer-smooth swing that sent the white ball soaring from home plate to dead centerfield, where it exited Petco Park over the black batter's eye. The LPGA star was hamming it up for the cameras during a pregame promotion for Taylor Made, the San Diego-based golf-club maker that had recently erected an 80-foot golf club alongside the foul pole in rightfield. At the time, you might have wondered whether you had just witnessed the only ball to leave the field of play during this four-game series, which featured two teams who entered the evening ranked 11th and 12th in the National League in home runs.

SAN DIEGO - The creature walking on his hands and feet across the leftfield grass at Petco Park was not a bear. It was a starting pitcher doing a bear crawl. The previous evening, Roy Oswalt had played the consummate professional after pitching six scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Padres, repeatedly saying that the back spasms he battled 5 days earlier did not impact his performance. But an hour after Oswalt finished his agility work in the outfield at Petco Park, pitching coach Rich Dubee praised him for his effort against the Padres, saying the back might have been more of a factor than the veteran righthander was willing to acknowledge.

Speed merchants of the West San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez homered and had six RBIs and Will Venable had four hits, including a triple and two doubles, in the Padres' 10-5 pasting of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. But as Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports points out, it's on the basepaths that the Padres have been doing the things that have kept them in first place in the NL West every day since April 20. With a lineup averaging just .239 and playing in spacious Petco Park, they have 49 stolen bases to lead baseball, two years after consecutive seasons in which they were last in thefts.

7:05 Citizens Bank Park. TV: Comcast SportsNet. Radio: WPHT (1210-AM); WUBA (1480-AM) Spanish. Pitching matchup: LHP Cole Hamels (11-5, 2.71) vs. LHP Cory Luebke (3-3, 2.57) HAMELS vs. PADRES: Hamels is looking to bounce back from a rough outing in his first post-All-Star break start, when he allowed seven runs in 4 1/3 innings of an 11-2 loss to the Mets. Hamels has always pitched well against the Padres, who hail from his native city of San Diego. In a 2-0 win on April 22, he pitched eight scoreless innings while striking out eight at Petco Park.

SAN DIEGO - The creature walking on his hands and feet across the leftfield grass at Petco Park was not a bear. It was a starting pitcher doing a bear crawl. The previous evening, Roy Oswalt had played the consummate professional after pitching six scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Padres, repeatedly saying that the back spasms he battled 5 days earlier did not impact his performance. But an hour after Oswalt finished his agility work in the outfield at Petco Park, pitching coach Rich Dubee praised him for his effort against the Padres, saying the back might have been more of a factor than the veteran righthander was willing to acknowledge.

SAN DIEGO - Natalie Gulbis gripped the club, bent her legs, and unleashed a lacquer-smooth swing that sent the white ball soaring from home plate to dead centerfield, where it exited Petco Park over the black batter's eye. The LPGA star was hamming it up for the cameras during a pregame promotion for Taylor Made, the San Diego-based golf-club maker that had recently erected an 80-foot golf club alongside the foul pole in rightfield. At the time, you might have wondered whether you had just witnessed the only ball to leave the field of play during this four-game series, which featured two teams who entered the evening ranked 11th and 12th in the National League in home runs.

SAN DIEGO - Petco Park doesn't offer an advantage just for the home team's pitchers. "The fortunate thing about playing in a field like this, you can be more aggressive," Phillies righthander Joe Blanton said. "If you miss over the middle . . . it's a good park to be aggressive in. You can just focus on getting the ball down and make some good things happen. " For a pitcher such as Blanton, who does not strike out many batters, this isn't a bad place to take the mound.

SAN DIEGO - Consider everything, from the 17 players who have spent time on the disabled list to Charlie Manuel's filling out 84 different lineups in 128 games to the many regulars who have endured cold streaks at some point. Then, remember this: The Phillies entered Friday only three games back of the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East. "I feel very fortunate," Manuel said. Problem is, the time for feeling fortunate is running short. After Friday, the Phillies will play 34 more games.

Speed merchants of the West San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez homered and had six RBIs and Will Venable had four hits, including a triple and two doubles, in the Padres' 10-5 pasting of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. But as Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports points out, it's on the basepaths that the Padres have been doing the things that have kept them in first place in the NL West every day since April 20. With a lineup averaging just .239 and playing in spacious Petco Park, they have 49 stolen bases to lead baseball, two years after consecutive seasons in which they were last in thefts.