The Padres took care of business winning two of three against the Diamondbacks to remain six games ahead of the Giants in the NL West. Their two wins matched and surpassed their total of 75 from last season. They will take a 76-50 record into their home series against the suddenly struggling Philadelphia Phillies this weekend in what could be a playoff series preview. The Padres split a four game series in Philadelphia in May. Here is a game by game breakdown of how the Friars fared Tuesday through Thursday.

August 24^th, 2010 Padres 5 D-Backs 0

WP Clayton Richard (12-5) 6IP 3H 0R 0ER 5BB 8K 0HR

LP Rodrigo Lopez (5-12) 4.33IP 9H 5R 5ER 1BB 1K 2HR

The Padres matched their season win total of 2009 with a 5-0 victory Tuesday night over visiting Arizona. Will Venable and Chris Denorfia each hit two-run blasts to lead the Padres offensive attack.

Clayton Richard earned his twelfth win of the series giving up no runs in six innings. Richard struck out eight Diamondbacks with three hits and five walks. He combined with four other Padre pitchers for a five-hit shutout.

The Padres jumped to a 2-0 lead when Will Venable hit a two run shot to deep right in the second inning. He also scored in the bottom of the fourth on Denorfia’s home run to the second deck in left.

Ryan Ludwick added the final run with a RBI single in the fifth inning. The win was the Padres 16^th shutout of the season, second in the majors to the Mets with 19.

August 25^th, 2010 Padres 9 D-Backs 3

WP Wade LeBlanc (8-11) 6.67IP 7H 3R 3ER 2BB 7K 2HR

LP Joe Saunders (1-4) 4IP 8H 9R 6ER 3BB 1K 2HR

Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Tejada each homered to knock in five of the nine Padre runs for a 9-3 victory Wednesday night at Petco Park. Wade LeBlanc earned his eighth win surrendering only three runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Arizona took an early lead when Stephen Drew hit his first of two solo homers in the top of the first. He hit his second in the seventh inning and finished 4-4.

The Padres answered back with Tejada’s 2-run shot in the first to make it 2-1. David Eckstein score on afielding error by drew in the third. After a Ryan Ludwick sacrifice fly, Yorvit Torealba’s two RBI single put the Padres up 6-1.

Adrian’s three run blast followed an RBI single by Adam LaRoche in the fourth. Drew’s solo shot in the seventh completed the scoring at 9-3.

August 26^th, 2010 Padres 5 D-Backs 11

WP Ian Kennedy (8-9) 7IP 1H 0R0 ER 2BB12 K 0HR

LP Kevin Correia (10-9) 3.33IP 9H 9R 9ER 2BB 4K 1HR

Throwback Thursday quickly became D-Back Thursday as Kevin Correia surrendered a whopping nine runs before exiting with one out in the fourth inning. All runs were earned and scored on nine hits.

Ian Kennedy dominated the Padres for seven innings allowing just one hit. He struck out 12 friar batters while walking only two.

Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the first when Justin Upton scored on Chris Young’s two-out single. Stephen Drew hit a three run homer the next inning to go up 4-0.

Drew knocked in two more with a ground rule double in the fourth. After a Justin Upton RBI single, Chris Young knocked in a pair to make it 9-0

Mark Reynolds added two more with a deep home run to left center to go up 11-0.

The Padres finally got on the board in the eighth when Chris Denorfia scored on David Eckstein’s comebacker to the mound. Retreating to back to third in a rundown Denorfia was hit in the back by a thrown ball that went into left field. Denorfia scored and Chase Headley advanced to third.

Tejada drew a walk to put a Padre at every pillow. Adrian Gonzalez the clobbered the ball to right field for his 27^th round-tripper of the season. At the end of the eight the Pads were down 11-5.

The Padres scored five runs or more in their last eight games. The win was Arizona’s first in Petco Park in 10 tries this season. Chris Denorfia left the game sliding into second in the ninth. It appeared he turned his ankle on his back leg while going feet first. No word on the severity of the injury at press time.