San Francisco Giants (78-61) @ San Diego Padres (78-59)

Date: Thursday September 9th, 2010

Time: 10:05 pm EST

Preview: The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres start a four game series at Petco Park on Thursday evening. This series is a huge series late in the season that showcases the top two teams in the National League West. The Giants come into Wednesday night’s game in Arizona just a single game behind the Padres. Tim Lincecum struck out 11 for his 13th win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night. The Giants currently are in second place in the National League wildcard chase, only trailing Philadelphia. Aubrey Huff has provided the offensive spark plug for the Giants. Huff is batting .287, while blasting 23 homeruns and driving in 79 runs. The Giants as a team are batting .259, which ranks 14th in all of baseball.

Matt Cain will take the mound for San Francisco in search of his 11th win of the season. The 25 year old right hander has a 10-10 mark, with a 3.18 earned run average on the season. Cain has a career record of 54-61. John Garland, the former Chicago White Sox hurler will take the mound for the Padres. Garland is 13-10 on the season, and 130-112 in his career. The 30 year old right hander is coming off a loss against Colorado where he lasted just 4.2 innings. The Padres have won two straight games after losing ten straight games, to lower their divisional lead to one.

My MLB Betting Picks: San Francisco ties for the lead in the division. Giants win 5-3.