Pre-game notes & lineups: San Francisco Giants look to take series from Chicago Cubs

The Giants and Cubs play the third and final game of their 3-game series this afternoon at AT&T Park. It’s lunchtime baseball again as first pitch today is 12:45 PT. RHP Edwin Jackson (3-4, 4.26 ERA) of the Cubs faces off against RHP Tim Lincecum (4-3, 4.55 ERA) for the hometown nine.

The Giants won last night 4-0 behind another strong performance from Tim Hudson. Today is the rubber match of the 3-game set as the Giants look to improve upon their 10-4-1 overall record in series this season.

First inning runs have been one of the Giants best friends this season. They have scored 41 runs in the 1st inning, the most in the majors. In 4 of the last 5 games the Giants have scored in the first inning, and have an overall record of 25-5 when scoring the game’s first run.

The lineups for today’s game.

Tim Lincecum has gone 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA in his last 5 starts at AT&T Park. He struggled with his command in his last start against the Twins and walked 6 batters. On the plus side, he pitched around all of that mess and the Giants won the game.

Pablo Sandoval is happy to see Edwin Jackson on the mound today. He’s red-hot and gets to face a pitcher that he has had success against. Lifetime, Sandoval is 7-13 (.538) with 1 HR against the Cub right-hander. He’s looking to match J.T. Snow with his 8th straight game driving in a run.

In case you missed it, Brandon Belt and his wife Haylee are expecting a “baby Baby Giraffe” (his words, not mine). You can read more about that here.

Some news on Matt Cain and Santiago Casilla. It looks like Cain will be good to go Saturday in St. Louis. The timetable for Casilla’s return is still 4 weeks, but he’s showing progress.