Nine-game road trip begins Tuesday in Miami

Pads-Marlins Preview (April 11-13 at Dolphins Stadium)

With the youthful Marlins lineup and off-season turnover of the Padres roster, there aren’t too many significant matchups to take advantage of for the upcoming three-game series.

TUE., APRIL 11 — Woody Williams, RHP (0-0, 0.00/1.00) at FLA: Sergio Mitre, RHP (1-0, 0.00/0.67)

Key matchups: Brian Giles is 3-for-5 against Mitre, while Vinny Castilla is 2-for-7 with a homer. … In three career starts at Florida, Williams (5.49/1.47) has not fared well.

WED., APRIL 12 — Chris Young, RHP (0-0, 6.75/0.94) at FLA: Brian Moehler, RHP (0-1, 27.00/3.50)

Key matchups: Giles (3-for-9) and Castilla (2-for-8) each have a homer off Moehler.

THU., APRIL 13 — Dewon Brazelton, RHP (0-1, 31.74/5.57) at FLA: Jason Vargas, LHP (0-1, 9.00/2.20)

Key matchup: As a rookie last season, Vargas had a 3.58/1.17 in nine appearances (6 starts) at Dolphins Stadium.

"WE’RE NOT IN PETCO ANYMORE": In what turned out to be an odd turn of events, the Colorado Rockies mistook Petco Park for Coors Field, averaging over 10 runs per game, en route to the three-game, weekend sweep. Brazelton (2.1 IP, 9 ER) got the worst of it on Saturday and ace Jake Peavy (4 IP, 8 ER) got peppered around as well in the finale. Young (5.1 IP, 4 ER) was also shaky, but managed to strike out seven. Each starter gave up two homers. … The Pads offense, in turn, managed only four runs per game and one homer (Khalil Greene) for the series.

LINEUP NOTES: With Shawn Estes (elbow) on the DL, Williams fills in for him in the series opener on Tuesday. Chan Ho Park, the North County Times reported, gets the ball on Friday to open the three-game set in Atlanta. … 1B Ryan Klesko decided to go through with surgery on his strained left shoulder and will be out 2-4 months. Adrian Gonzalez, who leads the team with his .368 average, will continue to see regular time at first while Klesko is on the shelf.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to e-mail me at dmfilip@hotmail.com.