SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres look to continue their home run spree when opening a nine-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday at Petco Park.
Or should the Padres' downtown digs be christened "Muscle Beach?"
While little has gone right for rebuilding San Diego (44-58) this season, it has blasted home runs in 25 straight games. Slugging San Diego joins the 1998 Atlanta Braves (25), and four American League clubs, as the only clubs to reach that mark in major-league history.
If the Padres go yard on Friday in the first of a three-game series with the Reds, they will set the NL record and inch closer to the 2002 Texas Rangers' standard of homers in 27 straight games.
San Diego's lineup is matched against a Reds starter who's been torched by big flies. Southpaw Brandon Finnegan (5-8, 4.93 ERA) has absorbed 22 home runs in 20 games.
The Padres are coming off Wednesday's 8-4 win against the Toronto Blue Jays in which Adam Rosales and Brett Wallace went deep and Alex Dickerson, among the organization's top prospects, stroked a homer for the fourth consecutive game.
That's a nifty personal feat but it pales to what the Padres are accomplishing.
What gives for a team which is shedding veterans and trying to construct a brighter future as it careens toward its sixth straight losing season?
"Our chase percentages are down outside the strike zone, and we're forcing guys into the zone more often, (and) we're walking more than we were early in the season," Padres rookie manager Andy Green told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Those things you can control.
"Hitting the ball out of the ballpark 25 straight (games), it's borderline fluke. It's just one of those things that happen. We don't think about it much."
The Padres' brawn will likely occupy Finnegan's thoughts. He has surrendered a home run in six straight starts and 10 blasts in his last four.
San Diego hands the ball to veteran Edwin Jackson (1-1, 4.30 overall), hoping he can duplicate his last outing at Petco. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Giants in his Padres' debut on July 17 before settling for the win. Jackson has been keen in two starts after taking Drew Pomeranz's rotation spot when Pomeranz was peddled to the Boston Red Sox.
With Monday's trading deadline approaching, the Reds continue to field offers for Jay Bruce. The All-Star right fielder has been on a tear, tying a club record with a homer in five straight games; he has six homers in five games. It's possible the All-Star is playing his final games with the Reds.
"I would expect things to probably over the weekend get a little more engaged," Walt Jocketty, the Reds' director of baseball operations, told mlb.com. "There are clubs that have been engaged in Jay for a while. It's basically the same clubs but no one has really come up and been really aggressive."
It figures scouts from three West Coast contenting teams, the Giants, Dodgers and Mariners, will be evaluating the left-hand hitting veteran corner outfielder who fills a need.
Like the Padres, the Reds (40-61) are trying to flip their roster and collect young talent with upside. Surprisingly, San Diego is doing it while hitting the ball outside the ballpark at an historic rate.
