New York @ San Francisco preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 6, 2014 ) NY Mets 2, San Francisco 4

The San Francisco Giants own the biggest division lead and became the first team in baseball to reach 40 wins while continuing their dominance at home. The Giants will try to secure their ninth win in the last 11 games when they host the New York Mets again on Saturday. The Mets got off to a promising start on their road trip but dropped three in a row to the Chicago Cubs and could not hold a lead on Friday against San Francisco as the losing streak hit four games.

The Giants improved to 19 games over .500 with Friday’s 4-2 triumph and have won seven of their last eight home games with nine still to come on the current homestand. The pitching staff is surrendering an average of 2.57 runs in the last 14 games and the offense is doing just enough to make that stand up, like when Buster Posey hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth on Friday. New York is struggling to find that sort of clutch hit during its slide and All-Star David Wright is 0-for-13 in that stretch.

TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, SNY (New York), CSN Bay Area (San Francisco)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets RH Bartolo Colon (5-5, 4.52 ERA) vs. Giants RH Tim Hudson (6-2, 1.75)

Colon is enjoying a three-start winning streak and has worked into the eighth inning in each of those turns. The burly veteran issued a season-high three walks in seven-plus frames at Philadelphia on Monday but limited the damage to two runs for his third straight quality start. Colon does not own a long track record against anyone in the San Francisco lineup but surrendered a home run in three at-bats against Hunter Pence.

Hudson is enjoying a strong run and is making a bid for a National League All-Star spot by surrendering two earned runs or fewer in each of his last eight outings. The veteran has not surrendered a run in either of his last two outings after holding the St. Louis Cardinals to three hits in seven innings on Sunday. Hudson has plenty of experience against New York and is 17-10 with a 3.47 ERA in 30 career starts against the Mets.

WALK-OFFS

1. Mets C Travis d’Arnaud is 3-for-26 since returning from the DL on May 29.

2. San Francisco SS Brandon Crawford has driven in five runs in the last two games.

3. New York top prospect RHP Noah Syndergaard will be shut down for a week after X-rays and a CT scan on his shoulder came back negative.

PREDICTION: Giants 6, Mets 3