Houston Astros (13-22) at San Francisco Giants (19-15)
4:10 PM ET on FOX
FREE Expert MLB Picks
Starting Pitchers
HOU: R. Oswalt (2-4, 2.63)
SF: T. Lincecum (4-0, 1.86)
The Houston Astros will square off against the Giants in game two of a three-game set on Saturday at scenic AT&T Park in San Francisco.
The Giants ended a four-game home skid on Friday night as they opened the series with an 8-2 win on Friday. The loss also ended the Astros four game win streak.
The San Francisco bats got hot on a chilly night just a day after they were one-hit by the San Diego Padres in a 1-0 loss that gave the Padres their second sweep this season over their NL West rival, dropping the Giants 3/12 games behind the division leaders. San Francisco hadn’t scored in 16 innings before Aubrey Huff snapped that streak with a two-out single in the first that drove in the first run of the ballgame. The G-men added three more in the second inning — their biggest single-inning output since the previous Thursday in Florida. They had gone 59 innings between the three-run rally. Nate Schierholtz started it with a single and later scored on Matt Downs’ double while Pablo Sandoval’s ground ball added another run. It was just Sandoval’s second RBI in 11 games in May. Sandoval also hit a pair of singles for just his second multi-hit game of the month, too.
The Astros will start veteran right-handed pitcher Roy Oswalt, who may be on his way elsewhere very soon. The 32-year old starter is not happy in Houston and recently stated that he would be open to a trade if the Astros waived his no-trade clause in order to be dealt to a contender, which would greatly increase his win percentage. He currently sits at 2-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 48 innings pitched a lot better than his win loss recorded would indicate. He’s 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in his career against the Giants.
It was conformed that San Francisco will go with Cy Young candidate Time Lincecum in Saturday’s contest as Manager Bruce Bochy had considered tinkering with his rotation, swapping Lincecum with Todd Wellemeyer. “The Freak” will pitch on five days’ rest. Despite no-decisions in each of his last three starts, he remains 4-0 with 64 strikeouts and 1.86 ERA. He’s 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA in six starts against the Astros in his career.
Hunter Pence and Lance Berkman continued to produce at the plate for the Astros scoring Houston’s only two runs of game one. Pence (3-for-4) homered for the fourth time in five games, and Berkman (2-for-4, double) drove in his fifth run over his last four starts (13-22).
The odds makers have the Giants as –1-½ – favorites with a run total of 6-1/2.
Runs will be tough to come with Saturday’s pitching matchup so I expect a close low-scoring game with Giants taking game two and the UNDER.
Click Here for more FREE Expert MLB Picks
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.