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Orioles-Giants Preview

Jun 15, 2010 - 6:39 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Baltimore (17-47) at San Francisco (36-27), 10:15 p.m. EDT

The San Francisco Giants are playing well at home, and are facing the best possible opponent for that trend to continue - the Baltimore Orioles.

The Giants look for a sixth straight victory at AT&T Park on Tuesday night when they try to hand baseball's worst team a 10th straight road loss.

San Francisco (36-27) is riding its third four-game win streak of the year after cruising to a 10-2 victory Monday in the opener of this three-game set. Freddy Sanchez drove in four runs and Pat Burrell homered for the second time in four days.

"It's hard to have a better game than what we put together tonight," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We just had quality at-bat after quality at-bat."

Burrell signed a minor league deal with San Francisco on May 29 and is batting .407 since he was promoted on June 4.

The Giants' last six-game home win streak was Aug. 23-28, 2007. San Francisco has also won seven straight interleague home games since a 4-3 loss to Los Angeles on June 17, 2009.

Baltimore (17-47) continues to head in the opposite direction, falling to 2-8 under interim manager Juan Samuel after his first road game. The Orioles are batting .204 during their nine-game road skid, the team's longest since dropping 10 straight away from home Sept. 21-30, 2009.

Matt Wieters ended a 102 at-bat streak without a homer Monday, but Miguel Tejada had a single in four at-bats to extend his homerless drought to 166 at-bats - the second-longest such stretch of his career.

Both teams are starting rookie right-handers Tuesday.

Joe Martinez will make his season debut for San Francisco in place of Todd Wellemeyer, who was placed on the disabled list Friday with a strained right quadriceps muscle.

Martinez was called up from Triple-A Fresno, where he went 5-2 with a 3.07 ERA in 11 starts. He appeared in nine games last season with five starts, going 3-2 with a 7.50 ERA, and was best remembered for being hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Mike Cameron the first week of the season.

This is Martinez's first interleague outing. It's possible that fellow rookie Buster Posey, called up from Fresno on May 29, may get his first start behind the plate because he caught Martinez a number of times in the minors.

The Orioles are hoping that Jake Arrieta (1-0, 4.50 ERA) will be a bright spot as they build for the future. His major league debut was a success last Thursday as he allowed three runs over six innings in a 4-3 home victory over the New York Yankees.

"It's real satisfying to go out there and throw well enough in my debut to get a win against these guys," Arrieta said. "It feels good. I really just wanted to go out there and make pitches and not let the adrenaline get the best of me."

Arrieta was drafted by Baltimore in the fifth round of the 2007 draft. He was rated the Orioles' fourth-best prospect before the 2010 season by Baseball America.

The right-hander went 6-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 12 appearances with Triple-A Norfolk this season.