Pre-game notes & lineups: San Francisco Giants Madison Bumgarner looks to continue road success

Update: Matt Cain has been placed on the 15-day DL with a strained hamstring and Juan Perez has been recalled and will join the team tomorrow in St. Louis.

Cain’s DL stint is retroactive to May 22. He is eligible to start June 6 against the Mets at the beginning of the next Giants home stand. Yusmeiro Petit will get the spot start again tomorrow for Cain.

It’s game 2 of the 4 game series between the Giants and the Cardinals tonight. Once again, it’s Midwest baseball so first pitch is 5:15 PT. Please don’t hurt anyone driving home from work to see the game. The radio works fine too.

The Giants took the first game last night with a 6-5 come from behind victory. If that’s any indication, this series between the last 4 NL pennant winners is going to be a tough one.

The Giants have won 7 of their last 8 games and have the best record in the majors at 35-19. LHP Madison Bumgarner (6-3, 3.15 ERA) faces off against RHP Adam Wainwright (8-2, 1.67) in a rematch from June 1 of last year. That day, the Cards got the best of Bumgarner, scoring 5 runs on 6 hits in an eventual 7-1 game. Wainwright went the distance, striking out 10 Giants hitters.

The lineups look a little different this time around.

Once again Buster Posey is taking a day off to rest all that ails him. This would be more concerning if it were last August, and not late May. Besides, the Giants have fared pretty well lately without Posey contributing much.

This promises to be a great pitching matchup. Wainwright leads the majors with a 1.67 ERA and Bumgarner hasn’t lost a start this month.

Since this game is in St. Louis, Bumgarner may actually have an advantage. He has gone 18-straight road starts without allowing more than 3 runs, a Giants record. Or, maybe he doesn’t. The last start before that streak started? Yup, last June 1 in St. Louis when he allowed 5 runs in 6 innings.

Pablo Sandoval has both a hit and an RBI in each of the last 9 games. Per Jacob Jaffe at STATS, LLC, the last Giants player to do that in 10-straight games was George Kelly in 1921. Of course it was. The last player in baseball to have a streak of 10+ games was Carlos Gonzalez back in August of 2011.

You’ll notice that Gregor Blanco is in the lineup again tonight. He’s even moved up a couple of slots in the order against the right-hander. Bruce Bochy said he was going to ride whoever was hot in the LF position while Brandon Belt was absent. Blanco is most definitely the hot hand going 7 for his last 12.

It rained earlier in the day, but seems to have cleared up for Giants baseball.