San Diego @ San Francisco preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 6, 2011 ) San Diego 5, San Francisco 6

THE STORY: The San Francisco Giants have a chance to salvage a split of a four-game home series with the San Diego Padres on Thursday after coming dangerously close to losing for the third consecutive time. The Giants had to rally from an early three-run deficit to tie Wednesday’s game in the eighth inning, before notching a dramatic 6-5, 14-inning victory on Nate Schierholtz’s second homer of the game. Schierholtz entered the game with just 13 career homers in 902 at-bats. The victory was only San Francisco’s fourth win in its last 16 home games against San Diego. The loss was just the fourth in the last 14 games for the Padres, who won the first two games of the series by identical 5-3 scores.

TV: 10:15 p.m. ET, Channel 4 (San Diego), CSBA (San Francisco).

PITCHING MATCHUP: Padres LH Cory Luebke (2-2, 2.52) vs. Giants LH Barry Zito (2-1, 3.81)

Luebke is making his third start of the season. He hasn’t allowed a run and has given up just three hits in 11 innings over the first two. Luebke struck out seven in six innings while beating Seattle last Saturday. In 31 appearances this season, Luebke has allowed just 27 hits in 50 innings while striking out 56. Hitters are batting just .163 against him.

Zito has pitched well in two starts since returning from a foot injury that sidelined him more than two months. He gave up just two runs and nine hits in 13 innings while beating the Chicago Cubs (June 28) and Detroit Tigers (last Saturday). Zito has traditionally struggled against San Diego with a 3-8 record and 4.38 ERA in 18 career appearances (17 starts).

ABOUT THE GIANTS (49-39): San Francisco relievers combined for 13 strikeouts in eight innings in Wednesday’s 14-inning victory. Brian Wilson gave up two hits and was the only one of the five relievers who allowed a hit. Pablo Sandoval picked a key time to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, delivering a game-tying, two-run double in the eighth inning. Veteran Miguel Tejada played second base for the second consecutive contest after having never previously played the position. Center fielder Andres Torres had three hits and is 4-for-10 the past two games after going through a 1-for-25 slump. Schierholtz also had three hits and is batting .386 (17-for-44) over his past 12 games.

ABOUT THE PADRES (40-48): San Diego stole four bases Wednesday for the second time in the series. The Padres also had four on Monday. Orlando Hudson and Jason Bartlett had two steals apiece Wednesday. Cameron Maybin has tripled in back-to-back games and has six on the season. The franchise record is 13, shared by Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn (1987) and current first-base coach Dave Roberts (2006). Chase Headley went 1-for-4 to make it 13 of 14 games with at least one hit. Headley is batting .352 on the road this season compared to .248 at Petco Park.

FINAL PITCH: The two teams combined to strike out 36 times in Wednesday’s 14-inning game. San Diego hitters fanned on 19 occasions and San Francisco batters struck out 17 times.