Friday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer: Giants go for first two-game winning streak since June 18-19

Thursday night, the Giants scored more runs than the other team for the first time since Saturday and now look to earn at least a series split with the last team they won a series against. They have not had a two game winning streak since June 18-19, and yes, that was against the Padres (last team they won a series against, also). The Giants will roll out the same lineup they put out on Thursday for tonight’s game against RHP Sean O’Sullivan:

Jul 7, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher

(57) delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth inning at AT

Chad Gaudin, as you’ll remember, was charged with lewdness on Wednesday from a January 27th encounter in Las Vegas, but will not be commenting on anything as his lawyer has put out a statement regarding the event.

Bud Black and the Padres will get to see a different set of players in Friday’s lineup with a couple roster moves having taken place:

Thanks for your work yesterday, Mr. Mikolas, see ya later, Ciriaco, and Mr. Richard is out for the year. We wish him a speedy recovery. The lineup:

If you’re wondering who this Sean O’Sullivan character is, I was, too. A bit of a journeyman already at 25 years old, SOS has been with the Angels, Royals, Blue Jays, and Padres. The Blue Jays are the only club he didn’t not make a big league appearance for. In his career as a starter (2009-2011), he threw 178.2 IP with a 6.35 ERA, 36 HRA, 88 K’s to 69 BB. If those numbers stay consistent tonight, that could be a problem for the struggling Padres, whom are 3-16 in their last 19 games (hooray arbitrary endpoints). Their last series win came against the Dodgers the series after the Padres were in San Francisco. So outside of the Giants and Padres fanbases, this is probably the least watched series of all the choices out there because there is actually a chance both of these teams could lose on the same night. Anyway, enough of my bad jokes, you might be interested in what O’Sullivan throws. These numbers are from 2011 through today, so this should just be used as a starting point to understanding what’s in his repertoire:

If you’re making mistakes with a 91-93 MPH fastball (or with any fastball, what am I saying), you’re going to get lit up, so we’ll see how effective the slider is tonight, if the changeup is working, and maybe he’ll humor us with a curveball here and there. He’s been holding his own against the Pacific Coast League this year with a 3.88 ERA and 3.30 FIP, but you know how those MiLB numbers don’t always translate to the MLB level.

Giants fans are more familiar with Chad Gaudin’s stuff than the opposing pitcher’s, and saw him step up to the challenge of facing Clayton Kershaw in a seven inning, nine strikeout outing that was pretty great to watch. If I remember correctly, the slider was pretty good that day. He needs that pitch, as it’s the second-most used tool in his arsenal:

Average of 12 MPH difference between that fastball and slider, so if hitters guess wrong, Gaudin can tally up those strikeouts just like he did last time. Four starts ago in Arizona he put up seven strikeouts, so for Gaudin to put up bigger strikeout numbers recently gives us something to watch for in his approach against the Padres tonight.

Other news and notes for Friday:

Pretty sure Hensley had been working on getting back to a big league club this year so the fact that he’s received his ring so late in the year isn’t too surprising.

So where does this leave Andres Torres? Good question. He’s been fine against LHP this year, and it really isn’t his fault Angel Pagan got injured. In 110 PA, Torres has a .317/.355/.406 line with a .332 wOBA. I think that’s acceptable for a platoon player. Jeff Francoeur was .242/.288/.306 with a .259 wOBA in 66 PA vs. LHP.

Early congratulations to Sergio Romo on his probable All Star selection.

Game two of the four-game series begins at 7:10 PM PST at PetCo Park.