Padres On Deck@ Mariners,Game 1 of 3

San Diego (15-27) at Seattle (16-26), 7:10 pm, 4SD/1090/105.7

SEATTLE (Ticker) - The San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners look to climb out of the basement of their respective leagues on Friday when they begin a three-game interleague series.

San Diego has struggled mightily to mount any kind of success in 2008. After beginning the season 8-8, the Padres have dropped 19 of their next 26 contests and sport the worst record in the National League.

Likewise, Seattle - which hoped the trade with Baltimore for ace lefthander Erik Bedard would give it enough of a boost to improve on its 88-74 finish in 2007 - has fallen off the pace since starting this season 11-11. The Mariners had dropped 15 of their last 20 before avoiding a three-game sweep with a 4-3 win over Texas on Wednesday.

San Diego will turn to Chris Young (3-3, 3.94 ERA), who has enjoyed a fair amount of success against Seattle and in interleague play. The righthander is 3-1 with a 3.46 ERA in seven starts vs. the Mariners and 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA in 10 interleague starts. Young yielded a run and five hits with seven strikeouts over six frames in Sunday's 6-1 victory over Colorado.

Seattle will counter with Miguel Batista (3-4, 5.58), who was moved up a day after the Mariners used starter Jarrod Washburn in relief during Thursday's win. The righthander picked up the win in Sunday's 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox despite permitting three runs and 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings.