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Giants-Diamondbacks Preview

Jun 11, 2009 - 6:26 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

San Francisco (31-27) at Arizona (25-35), 3:40 p.m. EDT

The San Francisco Giants are certainly capitalizing in a series against one of the worst teams in baseball. They'll try to parlay that into their first road sweep of this season.

The Giants look to cap their 10-game swing by completing a three-game sweep of the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

San Francisco improved to 6-2 against the Diamondbacks this year with Wednesday's 6-4 victory. It was also the Giants' fourth win in five games at Chase Field after they won only five of the previous 20 there entering this series.

That stretch includes a three-game sweep from May 27-29, 2008. They followed that up by taking all four games at Washington from June 6-9, 2008 and haven't been able to duplicate that feat in their next 25 series away from home.

San Francisco (31-27), however, has been impressive on the road of late, winning six of eight after opening its current trip with a 10-6 loss to the Nationals on June 2. Still, the Giants are 13-18 as the visitor.

"We knew we had to turn it around if we're going to have a successful season," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We've definitely played better on the road. This has been a tough road trip, with the travel and the rain delays, and we keep bouncing back."

Jonathan Sanchez (2-5, 5.19) will try to help the Giants complete the sweep after exiting his last two starts before completing the fifth inning.

The left-hander gave up five runs and eight hits with seven strikeouts in 4 2-3 innings of a 5-4 loss at Florida on Saturday. That came after he was pulled with two outs in the fourth after getting reached for three runs and six hits with two strikeouts and three walks in a 5-3 win over St. Louis on May 31.

"I thought he competed really well," Bochy told the team's official Web site following Saturday's defeat. "Sure, you want your starter to go deeper (in the game), but it wasn't like he was awful."

Sanchez was outstanding in his last start against the Diamondbacks on April 17, yielding two hits in 6 2-3 innings of a 2-0 victory. However, he's 1-2 with a 7.90 ERA in six games - three starts - at Arizona.

The Diamondbacks (25-35), last in the NL West, look to avoid a season high-tying fourth straight loss. Their 12-21 home record ranks only better than Washington's major league-low 9-22 mark.

"Right now, we're stuck in this cycle of having to be perfect in order to get through a game and feel good about it," Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said. "It's obviously a bad cycle to be in as a team, and we're going to work to get out of it."

Max Scherzer (2-4, 4.10) will try to build on a solid performance in Saturday's 6-4 loss at San Diego. Despite five walks, the right-hander allowed three hits and struck out six in five scoreless innings.

That was a vast improvement from his start on May 31, when he was tagged for eight runs and 10 hits with three walks in 3 2-3 innings of a 9-3 loss to Atlanta.

Scherzer has lost both of his starts against the Giants this season, posting a 4.66 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 9 2-3 innings. In his last meeting against them on April 25, he got only two outs in the fourth before being pulled after allowing four runs and five hits with six strikeouts in a 5-3 defeat.