The Giants are riding tremendous starting pitching during their recent surge to the top of the NL West. They’ll send their ace to the hill on Sunday and Madison Bumgarner will try and cool off the MLB-best Chicago Cubs.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
The Giants are at it again. Like they’ve seemingly done for the past several years, they ride the roller coaster, and right now the G-Men are trending up. A little over a week ago, the Giants were a game under .500 at 17-18 and doing their best to stay ahead of the last place San Diego Padres. Then, whatever manager Bruce Bochy does to inspire his club, he did it again. Frisco hasn’t lost since a 4-0 shutout at the hands of Toronto on May 10, rattling off seven straight wins to take over the top spot in the NL West.
They’ve been hotter than the Cubs and the pitching has been electric. Johnny Cueto shut down San Diego on Wednesday in a 2-1 win, not really a surprise against the punchless Padres, and the staff allowed just a single tally in each of the two previous games. The Giants haven’t been the most explosive offensive club, which makes for a lot of low scoring games. They played below the total in six straight and 10 of 11 following Wednesday’s contest.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Kyle Hendricks (2-3, 3.51 ERA) allowed four runs on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 5.1 innings in Monday’s loss to the Brewers. He was cruising until the sixth when a walk and three hits ended his bid for a quality start. He surrendered a home run for just the second time all season and allowed at least four runs for the first time since Apr. 20. He was nasty through the first five frames, getting 10 swinging strikes and eight ground ball outs.
Hendricks felt he relied too much on his fastball against Milwaukee and will work on mixing up his pitches more. While his overall numbers are good, the splits are a bit concerning. Hendricks has a 5.19 ERA on the road, compared to a 2.28 mark at home.
Madison Bumgarner (5-2, 2.45 ERA) tossed a complete game gem at San Diego on Tuesday, allowing just one run on five hits with 11 strikeouts. Matt Kemp ruined the shutout bid with a majestic blast leading off the ninth. Bumgarner is 4-0 with a 1.53 ERA in his last five starts, all of which have been Giants wins. In 35.1 innings during that span, he has struck out 42 and walked 10.
Although his average fastball velocity is lower than it’s ever been, the lefty continues to be one of the games dominant hurlers. His 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings is well above his career average and his 84.1 percent strand rate is also significantly higher.
LIVE BETTING
It took 34 games and 153 plate appearances, but Jason Heyward finally got his first home run in a Cubs uniform during the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Brewers. The Cubbies are hopeful maybe now everything will click into place for a hitter manager Joe Maddon compared to Hall of Famer Paul Molitor.
Even if Heyward admitted he might have been pressing a little bit with the new contract – and still had his right wrist taped up after Wednesday’s game, a lingering issue that can be traced back to early April – he also has a nine-game hitting streak and an on-base percentage hovering around .340. “We’re going to have ups and down with hitting. It’s always going to happen,” Heyward said. But now, it looks like he’s having his ups.
QUICK PICK
Still owners of the best record in the majors, the Cubs have come across some difficult times recently. They pulled the Houdini act on Wednesday to defeat the Brewers in 13 innings, avoiding their first three-game losing streak of the year. Since losing a double-header to San Diego last week, the Cubs went just 3-4. We didn’t expect them to win 80 percent of their games and they have regressed a bit, but they are still the most well rounded team in the big leagues. The Giants, on the other hand, are due to fall, and they haven’t been the best at home. We should have a good pitchers duel, but the Cubs have more offensive weapons to get to MadBum.
MLB Odds: Chicago 5, San Francisco 2
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