Saturday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer; Crawford (might be) back

The Marlins have won nine straight against the Giants at AT&T Park, and despite their record coming into the series, they have already guaranteed at least a split of the four-game set in San Francisco. The Giants offense hasn’t done enough while the bullpen has seen the games slip away, and days like these have put into focus what the losses of Ryan Vogelsong and Chad Gaudin have meant for the ‘pen. Barry Zito has had four outings of seven innings this season, but none longer as he goes against this Marlins lineup:

May 31, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher

(33) throws during the second inning against the New York Mets at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jacob Turner, one of the players dealt to the Marlins in the Anibal Sanchez trade with Detroit, has only had four starts this year at the big league level as he was given time to figure things out at the Triple-A stage in the beginning of the season. Looking at his game logs, less than three earned runs, and keeping a one-baserunner per inning in three of his four starts, he’s giving his team a chance to win. As for what he throws, the frequency, and the velocity, you’ll see a four pitch mix:

The right-handed twenty-two year old will square off against these guys:

A day after Hector Sanchez got on base twice, I secretly had nightmares that he was going to be in the lineup for five straight days, but there’s Brandon Belt back in there in the five spot. Bruce Bochy said that depending on how Brandon Crawford feels in batting practice today, he’ll either stay in the lineup, or rest another day and let Joaquin Arias get the start in his place.

I wrote about Angel Pagan‘s MRI revealing a small tear in his hamstring here. He will be seeking a second opinion shortly.

One of the stories of today’s start will be Barry Zito and the loss of his father, Joe. After hearing of his loss, Zito told Bochy that he wanted to keep his turn in the rotation. We always pull for Zito, but today’s support will be a little different knowing the story behind the current events in his life.

Be sure you check out the video blog on Kyle Crick and Pablo Sandoval here done by @giant_potential. Great stuff.

Today’s game is at 1:05PM PST. If you’re wondering if you’re going to be subjected to the FOX blackout, don’t worry, that’s for the 4:05PM PST games.