![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/ryan-dempster-cubs-996.jpg\")
<\/a>San Francisco stands in first place in the National League West division thanks to an undefeated homestand and now heads to the Windy City to take on the Cubs for a three-game series.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s definitely the homestand we needed,\u201d said Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain.\u00a0 The club has actually won eight of its last nine games overall and held a 26-10 scoring advantage in taking four of the last six meetings at Wrigley Field.\u00a0 Giants manager Bruce Bochy deserves a ton of credit for the team\u2019s success, especially in juggling six outfielders in and out of the lineup.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the flexibility,\u201d said Bochy.\u00a0 \u201cIs it easier to have a set lineup and just put it out there and these guys know?\u00a0 No question, that\u2019s a lot easier.\u201d\u00a0 San Francisco is 6-8 in day games this year.<\/p>\n
Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner is 0-5 with a 4.21 ERA in seven starts this season, as the club has dropped six of his seven outings.\u00a0 The left-hander has posted an 0-3 record and 3.18 ERA in four road outings, giving up just a single home run in 22.2 innings of work.\u00a0 In two previous outings versus the Cubs, Bumgarner compiled a 1-0 mark and 2.13 ERA, issuing just three walks and striking out 12 in 12.2 frames.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t performed well at all in the daytime, going 0-1 with a 6.52 ERA in two starts, while posting a 3.38 ERA in five nighttime appearances.<\/p>\n
Chicago enters the series four games under .500 and will look for better results than its 2-5 record against San Francisco last year.\u00a0 The Cubs have dropped two of three games to both the Reds and Cardinals to begin their nine-game homestand.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a tough stretch,\u201d said manager Mike Quade.\u00a0 \u201cThe frustration for me is that we\u2019re inconsistent.\u201d\u00a0 Offensively, the club is among the major league leaders batting .276, but are hitting .227 with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 Chicago is 7-10 in day games this year and 87-86 under the sun the past three seasons.<\/p>\n
Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Dempster brings in a 1-4 record and 7.20 ERA into this contest and the club has alternated wins and losses over his last seven outings.\u00a0 The right-hander is 0-3 with a 6.49 ERA in four home starts, surrendering six home runs in just 26.1 innings.\u00a0 He has toed the rubber in five daytime appearances, producing an 0-3 mark and 6.89 ERA, as hitters have managed to hit .294 against him.\u00a0 Dempster will\u00a0 be making his 24th career appearance (14th start) versus the Giants, bringing in a 4-8 mark and 4.76 ERA, including an even 1-1 record and 10.80 ERA in two outings last year.<\/p>\n
Bettors will be interested in playing the Cubs this afternoon due to their 24-10 record following a loss, while the Giants are 1-6 in Bumgarner\u2019s last seven starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs are set for a three-game weekend series in the Windy City at famous Wrigley Field San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs San Francisco stands in first place in the National League West division thanks to an undefeated homestand and now heads to the Windy City to take on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[180,4929,982,736,1637],"class_list":["post-15398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-madison-bumgarner","tag-ryan-dempster","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15399,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15398\/revisions\/15399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}