• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Athletics-Giants Preview

Jun 13, 2009 - 6:51 AM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Oakland (27-33) at San Francisco (32-28), 10:05 p.m. EDT

The San Francisco Giants are likely most confident when they have reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum on the mound.

Based on their recent success at AT&T Park, however, they're probably getting pretty comfortable playing at home regardless of who's pitching.

The Giants go for their eighth win in nine games in San Francisco as they continue a three-game interleague series against the Bay Area rival Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.

San Francisco (32-28) got another dominant outing from Lincecum on Friday night as the right-hander struck out eight and beat Oakland 3-0 for his second career shutout.

The Giants improved to 7-3 in their last 10 games started by Lincecum. They're also 7-1 in their last eight at AT&T Park, having held opponents to 16 runs during that stretch. San Francisco has the third-best home record in the majors at 19-9.

Oakland (27-33) had won seven straight in San Francisco before Friday. The Athletics outscored the Giants 14-4 in sweeping a three-game set there last year, but they didn't have any luck against Lincecum in the opener.

They hope for better results against Randy Johnson (5-5, 5.14 ERA), who'll take the mound Saturday. In his first start since becoming the 24th pitcher to reach 300 wins, the left-hander gave up three runs in five innings of a 4-0 loss at Florida on Monday.

Johnson, in his first season with the Giants, got one or no runs of support for the seventh time in 12 starts this year. He's near the bottom of the league with a run support average of 3.43. Despite that, he's won four of his six home starts with a 4.24 ERA.

Johnson is 13-9 with a 3.05 ERA in his career against Oakland, which he hasn't faced since 2006 while with the New York Yankees.

Josh Outman (4-0, 3.17) gets the start for the Athletics. The left-hander has quietly put together a strong season, going 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA in six starts since May 13. Oakland is 5-1 in those games.

Outman, who's never faced San Francisco, got through a shaky fourth inning and limited Minnesota to three runs and four hits while striking out seven in six innings of a 4-3 victory Monday.

"That's what you look for as a manager," Oakland's Bob Geren told the team's official Web site. "We needed him to refocus, and he did, and he put us in position to win the game."

Giants outfielder Aaron Rowand drove in two runs with a fifth-inning single Friday. He's batting .400 with four homers, 17 RBIs and 17 runs scored over his last 25 games, and he's hit safely in nine consecutive home games with a .361 average during that run.

Rowand, though, is 5 for 27 (.185) with seven strikeouts in seven games against Oakland since signing with San Francisco before the 2008 season.