Pre-game & lineups: Hunter Pence to leadoff for San Francisco Giants

There’s a shakeup at the top of the lineup for the San Francisco Giants this afternoon. Hunter Pence will assume the leadoff role as the San Francisco Giants try to win a series at home for the first time since early June. Today it’s LHP Madison Bumgarner (9-5, 2.90 ERA) against St. Louis Cardinals RHP Carlos Martinez (1-3, 4.13 ERA).

Back to the new top of the order, here’s how the lineup looks today.

Hunter Pence RF
Joe Panik 2B
Buster Posey C
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Tyler Colvin LF
Adam Duvall 1B
Brandon Crawford SS
Gregor Blanco CF
Madison Bumgarner P

In the absence of Angel Pagan it has been Blanco primarily in the leadoff role, since the offense has been sputtering Bruce Bochy decided to shake things up. Joe Panik slides into the second spot to create a new set of “Killer P’s” at the top. Panik has only hit .182 at home since his debut but has two 2-hit games in his last 3 starts.

Bochy has elected to keep Crawford in the lower half of the order. I would have to think that’s to keep a run producing bat towards the bottom. Michael Morse gets the day off as Colvin is in left field. That doesn’t feel like a downgrade today as Colvin had some great at bats last night against Adam Wainwright.

Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez might be the thing to jumpstart Blanco’s bat. They have faced each other twice with Blanco getting a hit both times. It was Blanco that led an 8th inning rally against Martinez in St. Louis that led to a 6-5 victory for the Giants back on May 29th.

In that same series earlier this season Madison Bumgarner struck out 10 Cardinals hitters and didn’t allow a run in 7 innings of work during a 9-4 Giants victory. Here’s the lineup Bumgarner will face as he tries for his 10th victory this season.

Some news on rehabbing players. Brandon Belt is set to rejoin the club tomorrow in San Diego. During his stint in the minors Belt has hot .520 (13-for-25) with 3 doubles and 3 home runs between San Jose and Fresno. He’s also logged 30.1 innings at first base.

Marco Scutaro has played 5 games with the Arizona League Giants on his rehab stint. So far he’s just 2-for-11 with a double. Scutaro has played 17 innings at second base.

The Giants have gone 2-7 on this homestand with the only 2 victories being Tim Lincecum masterpieces. Something needs to light a fire under this team, hopefully today’s lineup restructuring will do just that.