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Padres-Giants Preview

Jul 10, 2009 - 6:21 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

San Diego (35-50) at San Francisco (47-38), 10:15 p.m. EDT

When the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres meet this year, the home team always wins.

The Giants hope that trend continues as they look to extend their home winning streak over the Padres to seven games Friday night.

San Francisco (47-38) opened this four-game series with a 9-3 win Thursday, improving to 3-6 against the last-place Padres. San Diego (35-50) has won all six meetings in 2009 at Petco Park, but hasn't won at AT&T Park since a 5-1 win May 31, 2008.

The Giants won for the eighth time in 10 home games Thursday behind Tim Lincecum, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Tony Gwynn's leadoff single. He had his scoreless innings streak snapped at 29 later in the inning, but still notched his 10th victory.

Lincecum and Matt Cain are the first set of NL teammates to each record 10 wins.

San Francisco got homers from Travis Ishikawa, Bengie Molina and Juan Uribe as the Giants collected 12 hits. Ishikawa had three hits, and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games.

Third baseman Pablo Sandoval had two hits and two RBIs on the day he learned he was beaten by Philadelphia's Shane Victorino for a spot on the NL All-Star team, as voted by fans.

"I'm happy. It's my first full year in the big leagues and I was on the All-Star ballot," Sandoval said. "I got the numbers. I didn't get the votes. I'm excited about the support from my teammates and the fans. I want to thank them."

The last-place Padres have lost five straight and are 5-14 on the road against NL West opponents.

Jonathan Sanchez (2-8, 5.30 ERA) will return to the rotation for the Giants after being demoted to the bullpen following his outing June 22 against Oakland. He is back in a starting role because Randy Johnson is on the disabled list with a strained left shoulder.

Sanchez is 0-4 with a 7.45 ERA in his last four starts after allowing four runs over 5 1-3 innings in a 5-1 loss to the Athletics last month. Since that start, Sanchez has thrown three scoreless innings over two appearances out of the bullpen.

The left-hander is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA in two starts against the Padres this year.

San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is 5 for 17 (.294) in his career against Sanchez, but just 1 for 6 this year. Gonzalez does not have an RBI in his last six games versus the Giants.

The last time the Padres won in San Francisco, it was mostly because of Josh Banks (1-0, 5.60). He pitched a six-hitter for his only career complete game in the win on May 31, 2008, lowering his ERA against the Giants to 0.95 in three appearances.

The right-hander will make his third start of the year for San Diego. He's 1-0 with a 7.15 ERA in his first two after allowing six runs over 4 1-3 innings against the Dodgers on Sunday in a 7-6, 13-inning loss.