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Giants hope to extend win streak against Cubs

May 13, 2011 - 2:44 PM (Sports Network) - The San Francisco Giants are back on top in the National League West Division and will put their six-game winning streak on the line this afternoon in the opener of a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

The Giants will also visit the division-rival Rockies and Dodgers on this upcoming seven-game trek and recorded back-to-back three-game sweeps of both Colorado and Arizona at AT&T Park. The Giants broke out the brooms on the Diamondbacks with Thursday's 3-2 win behind starter Matt Cain, who struck out seven over 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball.

"He's so tough. He could have come out of that game, but he wanted to stay in," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said on the club's website. "He's just grown so much as a player, a pitcher. ... He just kept going out there and throwing out zeros. We're lucky to have him."

Jeremy Affeldt, Ramon Ramirez, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez went the rest of the way to preserve Cain's third win of the season (3-2), with Lopez tacking on his first save of the season.

Nate Schierholtz recorded three hits and an RBI to lead the offense, while Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres were both credited with an RBI for the defending World Series champions, who have prevailed in eight of their last nine games. Torres appears to be in midseason form after he missed a month with a strained Achilles' tendon.

It's not difficult to determine what sort of form starter Madison Bumgarner is in right now, as the lefty sports a lowly 0-5 mark in seven starts to go along with a pedestrian 4.21 earned run average. Bumgarner gets the nod today and previously pitched in Saturday's 3-2 win over Colorado, but recorded a no- decision for permitting two runs -- one earned -- in six innings.

The young left-hander, who is 0-3 in four road starts this season, will make his third career start against the Cubs and is 1-0 with a 2.13 ERA in the first two. Bumgarner hasn't received much run support lately since the Giants have totaled just four runs over his past four trips to the mound.

Chicago will resume a nine-game homestand Friday and lost its second straight series in the past week. Cincinnati took two of three meetings with the Cubs before St. Louis did the same by winning Thursday's rubber match by a 9-1 score behind seven solid innings from Jaime Garcia and 16 hits.

Casey Coleman had a rough start for the Cubs and allowed six runs on nine hits with four walks and no strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.

"Command is so important for him -- it's his whole game," Cubs manager Mike Quade said on the team's website. "He can't get away with the ball up, he doesn't have enough velocity. ... It's fun to watch when he's locked in but a heck of a battle when he's not."

Jeff Baker went 3-for-4 and knocked in the lone run for Chicago, which has lost six of its last 10 games and failed to build on an 11-4 bashing of the Cardinals on Wednesday.

Ryan Dempster has struggled to a 1-4 mark in eight starts this season and draws the assignment Friday for the Cubs. Dempster has dropped two of three starts and pitched well in his most recent outing on Sunday versus the Reds, as he yielded two runs through seven innings of a 2-0 loss. He threw seven innings of one-run ball on May 3 against the Dodgers in LA.

Dempster, a right-hander, is 0-3 in four home starts this season and 0-6 with a 9.59 ERA in his previous seven trips to the Wrigley Field hill. In 23 career games (13 starts) against the Giants, he is 4-8 with a 4.76 ERA.

The Cubs and Giants are meeting for the first time since San Francisco won five of seven matchups a season ago.