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Diamondbacks look to rekindle offense vs. hot Giants


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Author: AP News

Friday night was about as good as it has gotten for the San Francisco Giants in this shortened baseball season.

Young right-hander Logan Webb pitched seven strong innings and struck out eight on his way to a win. Evan Longoria homered for the 300th time in his major league career. Wilmer Flores homered for the third straight game — against his former team, no less — and the Giants ran their season-best winning streak to four straight games.

The Giants will try to make it five in a row Saturday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have yet to win a game in the Bay Area since arriving to play two games with the Oakland Athletics followed by a series across the bay in San Francisco.

“I’ve never really thought about personal numbers, but it is special,” said Longoria, who joined an exclusive club of players to hit No. 300 in a Giants uniform, including Mel Ott, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds. “It feels good to have it out of the way, and in a win. We’re playing really well right now and obviously it makes moments like this a lot more special.”

The Giants have been most successful at home in Oracle Park, where they’ve scored six or more runs in nine of 12 games this season.

“From a hitting coach standpoint, we’re getting really good information,” Longoria said of the reasons for the recent success on offense. “We have daily meetings. Night in and night out we’ve had a really good collective plan on what we’re trying to do against the starter … Top to bottom I feel we’ve really put together good at-bats. We’ve got some good momentum right now and guys are feeding off each other.”

The Giants could be without outfielder Austin Slater for a time, after Slater suffered a left groin strain early in Friday’s game and was taken out. He is scheduled for an MRI.

Left-hander Tyler Anderson will start Saturday night against Arizona. Anderson (0-1, 4.84 ERA) is in his first season with the Giants after the previous four with the Colorado Rockies.

He’s lasted five innings in each of his previous three outings, and is 2-1 with a 6.57 ERA in nine career appearances against the D-backs.

The Diamondbacks have seen a scorching offense that led them to six straight wins cool down to four runs scored in the last three games combined.

There is good news for Arizona. Ace Madison Bumgarner is scheduled to throw a 70-pitch simulated game on Sunday as he works his way back from a back strain.

“He’s in a really good spot. He’s feeling very good. The back is a non-issue at this point,” manager Torey Lovullo said.

As for Saturday, right-hander Zac Gallen (0-0, 2.40) gets the start. He pitched well enough to win his most recent start, going seven innings and allowing a run on three hits. But the D-backs haven’t offered much in the way of support for Gallen, who has neither a win nor a loss in five starts this season.

Gallen, 25, never has pitched against the Giants.

–Field Level Media


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Author: AP News

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