Arizona @ San Francisco preview
Oracle Park
Last Meeting ( Sep 25, 2012 ) Arizona 7, San Francisco 2
With their postseason hopes hanging by a thread, the Arizona Diamondbacks go for their eighth win in 10 games Wednesday, when they take on the National League West champion San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Arizona will need plenty of help to qualify for the playoffs as it trails St. Louis by 5 1/2 games for the second wild-card spot with eight contests remaining and has two other teams in its path. The Diamondbacks took the opener of the three-game series against the Giants as Paul Goldschmidt homered and tied a career high with five RBIs.
Arizona, which scored two runs on wild pitches, improved to 4-1 on its seven-game road trip by defeating Tim Lincecum for the sixth consecutive time. After recording 48 hits in their previous three games, the Diamondbacks have collected a total of 11 over their last two contests. San Francisco has lost two straight following a six-game winning streak. The Giants (89-65), who fell to 6-2 on their 10-game homestand, are four games behind NL East-leading Washington and NL Central champion Cincinnati for the best record in the major leagues and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with eight contests to play. San Francisco's Marco Scutaro is riding a career-best 13-game hitting streak.
TV: 10:15 p.m. ET, FSN (Arizona), CSN Bay Area (San Francisco)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Diamondbacks LH Wade Miley (16-10, 3.25 ERA) vs. Giants RH Matt Cain (15-5, 2.86)
Miley is coming off a victory at Colorado on Friday in which he allowed five runs and 10 hits over six innings. In his last three starts, the NL Rookie of the Year candidate surrendered five runs in each of his two wins and only three over seven frames in a loss to San Francisco on Sept. 15. The 25-year-old Miley has won three straight road outings.
Cain posted his fifth consecutive win on Sept. 19, when he limited Colorado to one run and four hits in eight innings. The 27-year-old, who has not lost since Aug. 6 at St. Louis, has allowed a total of four runs in 20 1/3 frames over his last three outings. Cain improved to 12-6 lifetime against the Diamondbacks when he yielded one run in five innings on Sept. 14 at Arizona.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Diamondbacks have scored five or more runs in six of their last seven games.
2. C Buster Posey registered his 99th RBI in the series opener, putting him within one of becoming the first Giant to drive in 100 runs since Barry Bonds in 2004. OF Hunter Pence is four RBIs shy of the century mark.
3. Arizona 2B Aaron Hill returned from a one-game absence due to an upper respiratory flu and collected three of his team's six hits.