SAN DIEGO-- With 22 home runs hit entering Friday, Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez is on pace for 67 this season. His current total has him leading all of Major League Baseball, and as such, Gonzalez has started to garner national attention for his power.

With Manny Ramirez currently serving a 50-game suspension after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in May, Gonzalez knows it's in the nature of fans and media to question everything in regard to steroids. But it still caught the 2008 Gold Glove Award winner off-guard on Friday when Jim Rome asked him on a nationally syndicated radio show what he puts into his body.

Gonzalez joked and responded that he was naturally powered by "burritos" and the only thing he puts into his body is "Mexican food."

"When you hear it for the first time you're like, 'What? How do I respond to this?' " said Gonzalez, who acknowledged that Friday's interview was the first time he's ever seriously been asked about using performance enhancers. "I guess the only thing is humor."

It's not that Gonzalez can't understand where the questions are coming from.

The past decade has seen slugging superstars Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, among others, linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

But Gonzalez has never tested positive for any performance-enhancing drugs since MLB implemented its current drug testing system in 2004. He's 27, the age at which many observers believe a player hits their physical peak. He's using a heavier bat, having switched from a 34 length, 31 ounce bat to a 35-33 before the 2008 season, when he slugged 36 home runs. And he's swing at fewer bad pitches. Last season, Gonzalez swung at 28 percent of pitches outside the strike zone. This season, he's swinging at 23.5 percent of those pitches.

"They always assume the worst first and then they're proven wrong," Gonzalez said. "That's just the way it is. You know you're going to be asked, but we're the ones who are going to have to come up clean every time to prove baseball is not like that at all. That was something that happened in the 90s and it's not something that's going to happen from 2003 and on."

Peavy on Monday

Jake Peavy is improved but still recovering from an upper viral respiratory infection that limited him to one inning on Tuesday night. With that being the case, Padres manager Bud Black has decided to push Peavy's next start back one day, from Sunday to Monday. Josh Geer will move up one day and start against Arizona on Sunday to give Peavy more recovery time.

"I think that's the main thing," Black said. "(Peavy's) still not 100 percent. It gives us the opportunity to push him back and give him another full day of rest."

Et cetera

SS Luis Rodriguez (ankle sprain) could begin a rehab assignment early next week as he continues to show improvement. Manager Bud Black said he didn't think Rodriguez would require a long rehab assignment and was pleased to hear the shortstop was diving after ground balls on Friday. "If you're diving, that means he's getting close," Black said. "I like the way he's been moving around." … Pitching coach Darren Balsley had RHP Shawn Hill (inflamed right elbow) take ground balls at shortstop and throw over to first base. Balsley said the drill encourages injured players, who are throwing from a different arm angle to account for their ailment, to throw from a natural arm slot. "He said he felt better and that's what I was looking for," Balsley said. The Padres have set no timetable to return for Hill, who went on the disabled list on April 26. … Black said RHP Cha Seung Baek is on a slower scheduled than Hill.