A brief demotion to the minor leagues may get Jeff Francoeur to finally emerge from a recent slump. Rediscovering his power stroke could also help the Atlanta Braves become a bigger factor in the playoff race.
Francoeur leads the Braves into Petco Park on Friday night to meet the San Diego Padres in the start of a three-game series.Last Friday, Francoeur was demoted to Double-A to work on his swing, as a 1-for-23 slump dropped his average to .234 - a 59-point drop from last season. Atlanta planned to recall him after the All-Star break, but he was brought back up on Monday.
The next night, Francoeur went 1-for-5 in a 9-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He then hit his first homer in nearly a month on Wednesday, one of two hits by Atlanta in a 2-1 loss. Francoeur has nine homers this year after hitting 19 in 2007 and a career-best 29 the previous year.
Wednesday's loss was Atlanta's 24th straight on the road in games decided by one run.
"We've had some tough luck all year," Tim Hudson told the Braves' official Web site. "It seemed like all the tough breaks have gone against us."
Despite a sub-.500 record and the majors' worst road mark at 13-31, Atlanta (43-49) is within striking distance of the NL East lead, and can't be counted out for the wild card.
Francoeur, still hitting .234, is batting .444 (4-for-9) in his career against Jake Peavy (6-5, 2.67 ERA), who will take the mound for San Diego Friday trying to avoid matching last season's loss total as he became the 12th pitcher to unanimously win a Cy Young Award.
Last year, Peavy led the NL in wins (19), ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (240). A strained elbow caused him to miss nearly a month earlier this season, and he's 2-2 with a 2.17 ERA in five starts after coming off the disabled list.
Peavy pitched one of his best games of the year on Saturday, limiting Arizona to three hits over seven shutout innings of a 4-2 victory.
"I was definitely better than I had been my previous couple of starts," Peavy said. "I'm getting back to where if I have decent stuff I'm going to do much better than I have."
Peavy, who did not face Atlanta in 2007, has lost his last three starts against the Braves dating to August 2004. He's 1-4 with a 4.70 ERA in six starts against them overall.
San Diego (36-56) lost for the 17th time in 22 games after falling 5-2 to Florida on Wednesday. The Padres have scored two runs or less 40 times this year.
They will try to jump-start their offense against Jo-Jo Reyes (3-7, 4.40), who will go for the Braves in the same park where he made his first major league start last year.
The left-hander lasted only three innings, giving up five runs and five hits - including two homers - and walked three in Atlanta's 8-5 loss to San Diego on July 7, 2007.
"The big stadium didn't make me nervous last year," Reyes said. "I was just in awe. It won't be like that this time."
Reyes has lost his last three starts, receiving two runs of support in those outings. On Saturday, he yielded four runs and six hits in 6 1-3 innings of a 6-1 loss to Houston.
