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Cincinnati currently leads the NL Central division by 3 1\/2 games with six weeks to go, as the team starts a three-game series against the Giants.\u00a0 The Reds captured a 5-2 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon giving the team its eighth win in nine games and guaranteed a winning nine-game West coast road trip.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t help but notice we haven\u2019t done much winning in Los Angeles,\u201d first baseman Joey Votto said.\u00a0 \u201cFor us to be the team that finally breaks that streak and gets a winning series on the road, it\u2019s a good thing.\u201d\u00a0 The pitching staff has been fantastic since June 17, posting a 3.15 ERA, which is the third-best mark in the majors over that span.\u00a0 Offensively, the club leads the NL with a .272 average and scoring 4.96 runs per game.\u00a0 The Reds are 15-5 in August (+1,020) and 10-4 as a road underdog of +100 to +125 this season (+760).<\/p>\n
Reds starting pitcher Edinson Volquez is 3-1 with a 4.98 ERA in seven starts this season and the club has won his last five starts.\u00a0 Over that span, the team has outscored opponents by a 36-17 margin, with the right-hander tossing just 26.1 combined innings.\u00a0 He has yet to earn a decision away from the Great American Ballpark, giving up 10 runs and 18 hits over 15 frames.\u00a0 In two career starts versus the Giants, Volquez is a perfect 2-0 with a 5.11 ERA, while not giving up a home run in 12.1 innings.\u00a0 He has a 11-15 record and 5.75 ERA in 40 career appearances (37 starts) after the All-Star break, which is well off from his 16-5 mark and 2.90 ERA in the first half.<\/p>\n
San Francisco has dropped 11 games this month already surpassing eight defeats for all of July.\u00a0 The Giants are 9-12 in August this season (-330) and the total is 10-11 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The starting staff has struggled since August 7, producing a 2-9 record and 5.60 ERA, as the team has dropped nine of 15 over that span.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t let a game or two get you down,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re headed home.\u00a0 We hope to play better.\u201d\u00a0 The club has a good chance of turning things around in this series, coming in with a dominating 23-10 record against NL Central opponents.\u00a0 The Giants are also 3-6 in a current 12-game stretch in playing opponents that are in the playoff picture.\u00a0 San Francisco is 8-5 when playing on Monday in 2010 and an incredible 143-87 in this spot since 1997 (+5,640).<\/p>\n
Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain is 9-10 with a 3.11 ERA in 25 starts this season and his team has alternated wins and losses in his last four outings.\u00a0 He dropped an 8-2 decision in Philadelphia last time out, giving up five runs (two earned) and seven hits over six innings of work.\u00a0 The right-hander is a solid 6-3 with a 2.62 ERA in 12 home starts, as opponents are hitting a combined .199 against him.\u00a0 He has pitched well over his last seven starts since the break, posting a 3-2 record and 2.51 ERA over that span.\u00a0 Cain is scheduled to make his eighth career starts versus Cincinnati and second this season.\u00a0 He is 3-3 with a 3.21 ERA in the seven previous outings, while picking up a 3-0 complete game shutout on June 8 at Great American Ball Park.<\/p>\n
Bettors will find that the Reds are 11-1 in Volquez\u2019s last 12 starts as a road underdog and the under is 5-2 in his last seven starts in this situation.\u00a0 San Francisco is 4-0 in Cain\u2019s last four starts as a favorite and the under is 4-1 in his last five starts versus Cincinnati.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both clubs are in the playoff race as they start a three-game series at AT&T Park in front of a ESPN2 audience. Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants Cincinnati currently leads the NL Central division by 3 1\/2 games with six weeks to go, as the team starts a three-game series against the Giants.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1611,78,1040,2024,1570,1781,736],"class_list":["post-6473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-att-park","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-edinson-volquez","tag-espn2","tag-matt-cain","tag-nl-central","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473","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=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6474,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions\/6474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}