Despaigne dealing with sore lat muscle

SAN DIEGO -- Seven shutout innings vs. the Giants in Friday's series opener still fresh in everyone's mind, the Padres' thoughts a day later turned to whether right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne will be up to starting again before season's end.

Despaigne was nursing a sore right latissimus dorsi muscle Saturday, a condition Padres manager Bud Black said popped up about the time the rookie exited Friday's game after fanning six, walking one and running his dazzling of the Giants this year to 20 innings, during which he's allowed just one total run.

"We'll try and resolve it in the next four days," Black said, referring to Despaigne's next scheduled start Thursday against the Rockies in this season's home finale.

As the days fall off what's left of the calendar, the Padres also do not know if Tyson Ross will make another start, either. According to the manager, Ross played catch Friday and still felt some general soreness in his forearm.

The Padres slotted lefty Robbie Erlin into last Thursday night's start in place of Ross after saying he had some "general soreness" toward the end of a season in which he has thrown a career-high 195 2/3 innings. Both the Padres and Ross have said that it is nothing significant, but they want to err on the side of caution after Ross' heavy workload in which he's started 31 times, compiled a 13-14 record and 2.81 ERA and was named to the NL All-Star team.

Despaigne, meanwhile, is 4-7 with a 3.36 ERA in 16 starts.

As things stand now, the Padres will start Ian Kennedy in Sunday's series finale against the Giants, lefty Eric Stults in Monday's series opener against the Rockies and Erlin for Tuesday's start against the Rockies. 

Black said he is leaving Wednesday's start as "TBA." Joe Wieland is a candidate for that day, and Black mentioned rookie Jesse Hahn and veteran Tim Stauffer as a couple of guys who could pick up a couple of innings as well.