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Giants-Padres Preview

Sep 11, 2010 - 6:54 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

San Francisco (79-62) at San Diego (79-60), 4:10 p.m. EDT

By winning the first two games in this critical four-game series, the San Francisco Giants have pulled into a virtual tie with the San Diego Padres for the NL West lead.

A third consecutive victory Saturday at Petco Park can put the Giants alone atop the division for the first time in more than four months.

San Francisco (80-62) entered this set two games behind the West-leading Padres, but have erased that deficit by taking Thursday's opener 7-3 and winning 1-0 Friday. The Giants are percentage points behind San Diego (79-61), which hasn't been out of first place since June 16.

"Now we are tied and it's a 22-game season," said the Padres' Miguel Tejada.

Aubrey Huff scored for San Francisco on Friday when Juan Uribe grounded into a fielder's choice in the seventh inning. Huff was hit by a pitch, stole second base and advanced to third by barely beating a throw from Tejada on a grounder by Jose Guillen to the San Diego shortstop.

The Giants, who have their first division lead in the second half of the season since July 22, 2006, haven't been alone in first since they were 17-10 on May 6.

"Awesome," said Huff, who is 8 for 20 with four RBIs and five runs in his last five games. "That's what we play all year for, the grind, all the stuff you go through all year long. It's what you wait for, to be within striking distance at the end of the year.

"That's where we are. We've got a lot of ball left, though. We haven't won anything yet."

San Francisco is in this position by winning nine of 12, and thanks to the Padres, who have lost 12 of 15.

A sluggish offense has been the biggest culprit for San Diego's disappointing stretch. The club has plated four runs or fewer in each of the last 14 contests.

"We're going to come out of it with a vengeance at some point," manager Bud Black said. "I think we have too good of hitters on this team to stay in this too much longer."

The Padres were limited to just three hits Friday and will try to turn things around against Madison Bumgarner (5-4, 3.44 ERA), who allowed five hits while striking out seven in 7 1-3 innings in Monday's 2-0, 11-inning win over Arizona.

It was the fourth time in five games the rookie left-hander yielded two runs or fewer.

Bumgarner is 5-1 with a 2.00 ERA in his last seven road outings, and this will be his first career start at San Diego's pitcher-friendly park. Against the Padres on Aug. 14, Bumgarner allowed two runs and eight hits in seven innings of a 3-2, 11-inning home victory.

San Diego counters with Tim Stauffer (3-3, 1.72), who is set to make his third start of the season following a strong performance in an emergency.

Stauffer found out about four hours before Monday's game against the Dodgers that he was starting for ace Mat Latos, who was scratched with the stomach flu. After facing three batters the day before, Stauffer allowed one run and four hits in four innings of a 4-2 victory to help the Padres snap a season-high 10-game skid.

His only other start this season was also under emergency circumstances. The right-hander took the spot of Kevin Correia on May 9 in Houston, and gave up six hits in five scoreless innings of a 4-3, 11-inning loss.

Stauffer, who has made two relief appearances against the Giants this season, allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings of a 2-1 loss in San Francisco on July 11, 2009.