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The Giants will be looking to continue making up ground on the Dodgers in the NL West when they face the Padres in San Diego on Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (79-72) at SAN DIEGO PADRES (71-81)
Sportsbook.ag Line: San Francisco -163, San Diego +148, Total: 6.5
San Francisco currently sits seven games behind Los Angeles in the division and the team will really need to rip off a big winning streak if it is going to sneak into a playoff spot. The Giants have won six of their past 10 games and will be looking to win this series against the Padres on Thursday. San Diego, meanwhile, is 15.5 games back in the NL West after a very disappointing season. The Padres will simply be looking to play the role of spoiler by defeating the Giants in this one.
The starters in this game are set to be LHP Madison Bumgarner (18-8, 2.84 ERA, 219 K) for the Giants and RHP Ian Kennedy (8-15, 4.29 ERA, 158 K) for the host Padres. The Padres are 5-4 against the Giants when playing in San Diego this season, but San Francisco is 11-7 on the year overall. One incredible trend favoring the Giants is the fact that Bumgarner is 20-2 against the money line as a road favorite of -110 or higher over the past two seasons. Yet, San Francisco is just 1-10 against the money line after a game where the bullpen was rocked for five or more runs over the past three seasons.
Both teams are dealing with a number of injuries, as 2B Ehire Adrianza (Concussion), 1B Brandon Belt (Concussion), 2B Joe Panik (Back) and OF Gregor Blanco (Concussion) are out for the Giants and OF Wil Myers is questionable for the Padres, who are already without 1B Yangervis Solarte (Hamstring) and 1B Yonder Alonso (Back).
Madison Bumgarner has been nearly unhittable all season and that has not changed in his most recent two starts. Bumgarner has allowed just one earned run over his last 17.0 innings of work and he has struck out 16 batters in the two contests. One of those two games was a meeting with this Padres team on Sep. 12 and he pitched a complete game shutout in that one.
C Buster Posey (.324, 19 HR, 93 RBI) went hitless in Wednesday’s loss to the Padres. San Francisco isn’t good enough offensively for Posey not to produce, so it’s important that he gets back on track on Thursday. He has a solid opportunity to, as he is 17-for-44 with a homer and eight RBI against Kennedy in his career.
Another guy who could benefit from the matchup is OF Marlon Byrd (.248, 22 HR, 67 RBI). Byrd is 8-for-22 with two homers and 10 RBI against Kennedy and will be looking to keep it up on Thursday. OF Brandon Crawford (.256, 19 HR, 80 RBI) has been heating up for the Giants lately. He has four hits and three RBI over the past two games and will need to keep driving in runs moving forward.
Ian Kennedy is going to be on the mound for the Padres on Thursday and he was lit up the last time he faced the Giants. The meeting was just two starts ago on Sep. 12 and Kennedy allowed seven earned runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings of work. San Francisco really got to him and put 19 balls in play in less than five innings. He’ll need to gather himself and be a lot better this time around.
Offensively, OF Justin Upton (.256, 26 HR, 80 RBI) is one of the only guys on this team who has given Bumgarner any problems. He is 12-for-36 with a homer and two RBI against him in his career and will need to produce at the plate on Thursday. OF Matt Kemp (.265, 23 HR, 98 RBI) will also need to play well. He is 5-for-14 with a homer and an RBI over the past three games and will need to continue hitting for this team. He is 8-for-44 with a homer and three RBI against Bumgarner.
2B Jedd Gyorko (.248, 16 HR, 54 RBI) has been hot for this team recently, going 8-for-18 with two homers and three RBI over the past four contests. He had four hits on Wednesday and it would really help this team if he can keep it up as they try to claw their way back into the postseason picture.
