The San Diego Padres look to continue their winning ways when the Atlanta Braves come to Petco.

Atlanta is playing .500 baseball over the last few weeks and need to get hot to track down Washington in the National League East. The Braves have taken a few steps towards that goal with a 7-1 victory at San Francisco on Sunday giving them back to back wins and picked up a pair of games on the Nationals who were swept by Philadelphia this weekend. Atlanta has been easy to size up with the pitching and hitting generally strong when they win which was the case Sunday. Tim Hudson picked up his 13th win with one run given up on five hits through seven innings of work. That was plenty good enough with the Braves playing the power game at the plate with Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman and Juan Francisco going deep. Lefty Paul Maholm opens the series on the mound riding the hottest streak of his career. Maholm has given up more than one run twice in his past ten starts in which Atlanta has gone 8-2.

San Diego doesn't have the overall record to back up this statement, but they have been playing some of the best baseball of any team in the game. That won't change the fact that San Diego will not challenge for the National League West crown but SD is certainly making life miserable for teams that are still in the running for the postseason. San Diego held off Arizona 5-4 on Sunday for win number seven in a row as the bats and arms have been on the same page. Edinson Volquez was the pitching star Sunday with two runs allowed on four hits and seven K's over seven frames. The bats were just as impressive with eleven hits and five walks with five players posting RBI's and four scoring. The Padres send Casey Kelly to the bump for his major league debut. Kelly was acquired from the Red Sox for Adrian Gonzalez trade but has had some elbow problems and will be under a watchful eye.

Maholm has been one or the best hurlers in the game for quite some time while Kelly is obviously an unknown. The Padres are the hotter team but Atlanta is the better club so right now I'm on the visitors...