The Giants Look To Continue Hot Streak Versus The Cubs

Yusmeiro Petit and the Giants look to continue hot streak versus Samardzjia and the Cubs

Winners of 21 of their last 29 games, the Giants look to continue that hot streak versus the Chicago Cubs. The two teams are set to open up a three game series at AT&T in San Francisco.

Winners of 4 straight, after sweeping the weekend series versus the Twins, the Giants enter play today with a 5 game lead over the Colorado Rockies.

Game 1 of the series is today and first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 pm PT ( Today is Memorial Day and a lot of today’s games are day games)

The Cubs will send right hander Jeff Samardzija (0-4, 1.46 ERA) to mound and will face Giants right hander Yusmeiro Petit (3-1, 4.76 ERA)

Samardzija, who has been one of the top topics of trade rumors over the last few months, is having a great season. Samardzjia is leading all of Major League Baseball in ERA, despite not having a single win in his record this year. In 7 of his 10 starts, the Cubs have score 0-2 runs in support.

Petit is making his fourth start of the season, all have been fill in starts to replace an injured Matt Cain in 3 of those 4 starts. In the previous 3 starts, Petit is 1-0 with a 7.04 ERA.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Tuesday at 7:15  pm PT

Cubs will send right hander Jake Arrieta (1-0, 2.33 ERA) to mound to face the Giants and right hander Tim Hudson (4-2, 2.13 ERA)

Arrieta, like Samardzjia has a good ERA despite the win/loss record not showing many results. Arrieta has been a victim of the bullpen not holding onto the lead in the 4 games he has started so far this season.

Hudson, who has been one of the top free agent signings from the last off-season, is having a great start to his Giants career. In nine starts so far this season, Hudson has only walked 6 batters,struck out 39 batters and a WHIP of 0.884 in 63.1 innings pitched.

The Series finale goes Thursday and is scheduled for 12:45 pm PT

Cubs will send right hander Edwin Jackson (3-4, 4.94 ERA) to mound to the face the Giants and right hander Tim Lincecum (4-3, 4.55 ERA)

Jackson, unlike Samardzjia and Arrieta doesn’t sport the low ERA but has 3 times the wins that both pitchers have. If Jackson could ever realize and tap into the talent in his right arm, he could be one of baseballs best but it just hasn’t happened in his 8 plus years in the league. For the season, Jackson has walked 22 batters while striking out 52 in 58.1 innings pitched.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/26/2014.

Lincecum, has been much better over his last 3 starts, has thrown 19.2 innings while walking 13 and striking out 21 and giving up 6 total runs in those 3 starts (2.81 ERA),  The walks are a bit of a concern but the rest of the numbers are respectable, especially going deeper into games and saving the bullpen from extra work.

One big difference between these 2 teams, aside from the standings, is the respective bullpens. The Cubs ‘pen is allowing an average of 4 runs per game, compared to the Giants and 3.39 runs per game. The Giants ‘pen is also second in the National League in wins with 13 compared to the Cubs league low of 3. On the flip side, the Cubs are tied for the NL lead in bullpen losses, with 12, and the Giants are third best with 5.

Cubs young outfielder Junior Lake is having a pretty good offensive season so far, .273 avg with 6 home runs and 18 RBI. Over the last 7 days (6 games), Lake is batting .320 with 1 home run and 2 RBI.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/26/2014.

The Giants Hunter Pence is having a great past 7 days (6 games) in which he is batting .444 3 home runs with 5 RBI. Pence is fourth in MLB in runs scored

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/26/2014.

As mentioned earlier today on this website, Eric and I are doing a Pre-Game Podcast for today’s game, starting at 12 pm PT and running for an hour and we would love to hear from our readers/listners