Padres-Diamondbacks Preview

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin believes the NL West race will be competitive this season. His team's early play against the defending champion San Diego Padres is certainly one reason.
The Diamondbacks look to defeat the Padres for the eighth straight time Wednesday at Chase Field when they try to complete another three-game sweep of their division rivals.
Arizona (22-17) won its third straight game and moved into first place in the West with a 5-2 victory on Tuesday. The Diamondbacks improved to 5-0 against this season against the Padres, who fell one-half game back into a second-place tie with Colorado.
''Everybody is within shouting distance of everybody,'' Melvin said. ''I enjoy seeing the fact that to this point the division has rebounded because it got a bad rap last year.''
San Diego (22-18) was the only team with a winning record in the West last year, going 82-80. This year, every team in the West is at .500 at better - the only division in the majors that can make that claim.
''It was ugly last year,'' Melvin said. ''We thought early on this season after watching the teams in our division that it would be better. There's obviously some other divisions where teams are 10 games under .500 or something like that where you're not seeing that in this division right now.''
Arizona closer Jose Valverde has figured prominently in his club's perfect record against San Diego. Valverde was the winning pitcher in Monday's 6-5, 10-inning victory and earned his 12th save on Tuesday, improving to 3-for-3 in save chances against the Padres this year.
''You've seen a lot of closers get beat up here early in the season almost across the board other than Trevor (Hoffman),'' Melvin said. ''So it is a very comforting feeling (having Valverde). That's a psychological advantage that you have a closer that's done as well as he has and goes out there and continues to be very effective.''
The Padres have dropped two straight for the first time since a five-game slide from April 24-29, which included a three-game sweep by the Diamondbacks at Petco Park. San Diego won 14 of 15 games entering this series.
Eric Byrnes and Chad Tracy hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning to key Tuesday's win. Arizona got seven strong innings from its bullpen when Orlando Hernandez left after two innings due to a mid-back strain.
Arizona's Shawn Green, who has an NL-leading .341 batting average, is 12-for-21 against San Diego this season.
Juan Cruz (1-1, 3.33) makes his fourth start of the year for Arizona. Cruz fell to 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in his first three starts after allowing five runs and seven hits over five innings in a 5-3 loss at St. Louis on Friday.
Cruz will make the first start of his career against the Padres. He has allowed two hits over 6 1-3 scoreless innings in five career relief appearances against them.
The Padres will recall Mike Thompson (NR) from Triple-A Portland to make his major-league debut. Thompson is 5-0 with a 3.70 ERA through eight starts this year for the Beavers.
The 25-year-old right-hander has been in the Padres organization for the last eight seasons. He split time with Double-A Mobile and Portland last season, working a career-high 174 2-3 innings.