San Francisco @ Florida preview
Sun Life Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 5, 2010 ) San Francisco 3, Florida 2
Another day, another strong starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants will send Matt Cain to the hill in the finale of a three-game series against the Florida Marlins on Thursday.
The Marlins struck out 13 times against Tim Lincecum on Tuesday and managed just one run against Barry Zito on Wednesday in dropping the first two games of the series.
The weak bats have been a common theme against San Francisco this season, as the starting rotation owns a 2.65 ERA while leading the National League in strikeouts and batting average against. Zito boosted his record to 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.49 with his strong performance on Wednesday.
Right-hander Sergio Romo played the goat in giving up a three-run homer in the eighth inning on Tuesday that erased Lincecum's win. Then he went and totally redeemed himself on Wednesday. Romo came in with the bases loaded and none out and struck out Hanley Ramirez before forcing Jorge Cantu into a double play to preserve Zito's victory.
Romo has struck out 16 while walking only one in 13 1/3 innings this season to emerge as the primary set-up man in the Giants bullpen.
Cain has been similarly dominant so far in 2010, posting a 2.84 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings through five starts. The 25-year-old right-hander is coming off his best start of the season when he allowed one hit in eight scoreless innings. He struck out eight in that game to earn a win against Colorado last weekend.
Cain has been one of the most unlucky pitchers in baseball in terms of run support over the last few seasons and he’s having the same problems with his offense in 2010. He currently sports just one win despite having allowed three earned runs or less in each of his outings.
The Marlins have never posed much of a problem for the hard-throwing Cain, who has limited them to a .214 batting average while picking up a pair of wins against zero losses in five career starts.
Dan Uggla is just 1-for-10 against Cain but Hanley Ramirez has had some success, going 5-for-13 with a solo home run off the righty.
Florida will counter with its own strong right-hander in Ricky Nolasco. The 27-year-old California native is coming off his worst start of the young season, when he allowed five runs in four innings to suffer a loss against Washngton last Friday.
The poor outing came in stark contrast to his previous two performances, in which Nolasco combined to allow two runs on 12 hits in 17 innings to record back-to-back wins at Philadelphia and at Colorado.
He has made two starts against the Giants in his career, going 1-1 while yielding two earned runs in 16 frames.
Nolasco will have to contend with Aaron Rowand, who has homered in each of the first two games of the series and is showing no ill effects after missing nearly three weeks on the disabled list.
The veteran center fielder was hit in the face by a pitch from the Dodgers' Vicente Padilla. He broke three bones, but returned to the lineup on Sunday.