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San Francisco moved within a game of the San Diego Padres after a 7-3 win in Thursday\u2019s opener at Petco Park.\u00a0 The Giants have a 3-9 record against the Padres this season, including a 2-4 mark at tonight\u2019s venue.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve had some bad times against these guys, so winning the first one is big for us,\u201d said last night\u2019s starter Matt Cain.\u00a0 Offensively, the team blasted four home runs in the spacious park, marking the first time in 61 games that San Francisco accomplished that feat.\u00a0 With their seventh win in nine games, the Giants also moved within a game of Wild Card pacesetter Atlanta.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re all important games…you just don\u2019t want to put \u2018do or die\u2019 in any game,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy stated.\u00a0 The club is now 37-36 on the road this season (+300) and the total is 39-33 O\/U in those contests.<\/p>\n
Giants starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez is 10-8 with a 3.39 ERA in 29 games (28 starts) and he picked up a victory in his last outing.\u00a0 In that start, he tossed seven shutout innings and scattered three hits, while walking just a single batter and collecting nine strikeouts in a 3-0 road win over the Dodgers.\u00a0 The left-hander has a solid 5-4 record and 3.12 ERA in 14 starts away from the Bay Area, as opposing hitters have combined for a .205 average.\u00a0 He is slated to make his 11th career start (18th appearance) and fifth start of the 2010 season versus the Padres, producing a 2-5 record and 2.84 ERA in 10 starting assignments.\u00a0 Sanchez is 0-3 with a 3.08 ERA in his four starts against San Diego in 2010, receiving a total of four runs of support.<\/p>\n
San Diego dropped last night\u2019s contest due to starter Jon Garland allowing three of the Giants four home runs, the first time he has done so in a start since August 14, 2007.\u00a0 \u201cI got knocked around the yard,\u201d said Garland.\u00a0 \u201cTerrible, especially to start a series.\u201d\u00a0 The Padres are in the midst of playing 16 straight, 19 of 23 and 22 of their final 33 games against NL West opponents.\u00a0 So far this year, San Diego is 31-29 against divisional opponents (+80) and the total is 26-33 O\/U in those games.\u00a0 If the ball gets in the hands of closer Heath Bell in this series, the club will be in good hands, as he has converted each of his last 26 save opportunities and ranks second in the NL with 39 on the season.\u00a0 The team has compiled a solid 26-16 mark against southpaws in 2010 (+1,120) and the total is 19-22 O\/U in those contests.<\/p>\n
Padres starting pitcher Clayton Richard is 12-6 with a 3.43 ERA in 28 starts this season and the team has dropped his last two games.\u00a0 In those starts, he has allowed six runs (three earned) and 13 hits over 13.2 innings, with the offense providing just two runs of support.\u00a0 The left-hander is a respectable 6-4 with a 2.85 ERA in 15 home starts, surrendering seven home runs in 94.2 frames.\u00a0 In five career outings versus the Giants, Richard has compiled a 3-1 record and 3.56 ERA, including a perfect 3-0 mark and 2.05 ERA in four starts in 2010.<\/p>\n
Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Giants are 7-1 in Sanchez\u2019s last eight road starts and the under is 7-3 in the team\u2019s last 10 games versus the division.\u00a0 San Diego is a brilliant 9-2 in Richard\u2019s last 11 starts against the NL West and the over is 7-2-1 in his last 10 home starts as a favorite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Padres dropped the first game of this crucial four-game set and will now look to hold onto their divisional lead at Petco Park. San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres San Francisco moved within a game of the San Diego Padres after a 7-3 win in Thursday\u2019s opener at Petco Park.\u00a0 The Giants have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":5028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1948,986,1522,1605,891,736],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-clayton-richard","tag-jonathan-sanchez","tag-nl-west","tag-petco-park","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365","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\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7366,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions\/7366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}