St. Louis @ San Francisco preview
Oracle Park
Last Meeting ( Apr 24, 2010 ) St. Louis 0, San Francisco 2
Brad Penny had a chance to re-sign with the San Francisco Giants during the off-season and turned it down. Now he’ll get a chance to beat the Giants today while wearing a St. Louis Cardinals’ jersey.
Penny and the Cardinals will be trying to avert a series sweep against the Giants in today’s finale of the three-game series.
The Cardinals had won each of their first five series of the season before seeing that streak end against the Giants, who won 4-1 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday behind stellar pitching performances from Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito.
St. Louis would like to at least leave town with one win in the series and it will be up to Penny – who went 4-1 in six starts for the Giants last season after being released by the Boston Red Sox – to put the Cardinals in position to do so.
Penny was a bad fit in the American League, going 7-8 with a 5.61 earned-run average. He had shoulder issues the previous season with the Los Angeles Dodgers and was never able to put things together in Boston.
It’s been a much different story thus far with the Cardinals. Penny has gone seven innings in all three of his starts and has a sparkling 1.29 ERA.
Penny has struck out 13 and walked three while making some adjustments suggested by St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan. Penny is now throwing a sinker as part of his pitching repertoire.
He’s also looking more like the two-time All-Star pitcher who won 16 games in back-to-back seasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2006-07 season than the struggling pitcher who was lit up for a .299 average by American League batters last season.
Penny will face a couple of his nemesis today in Giants catcher Bengie Molina (.409) and shortstop Edgar Renteria (.385), who have always fared well against him.
Renteria has been bothered by shoulder soreness in recent days but played Saturday for the first time since Wednesday.
Another San Francisco middle infielder is now ailing more than Renteria. Second baseman Juan Uribe had to leave Saturday’s game due to an elbow injury and is unlikely to play today.
Uribe has started each of the Giants’ 17 games and leads the team with 11 RBIs while batting .310.
Matt Cain will start for the Giants. He’s had no-decisions in each of his three starts and sports a 3.86 ERA.
San Francisco closer Brian Wilson saved each of the first two games of the series and has yet to allow a run this season in 7 1/3 innings over seven appearances. Wilson has allowed just three hits.