Padres 1 - 2 Giants
Final
  for this game

Giants, Padres close series at AT&T Park

Jul 7, 2011 - 3:05 PM

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(Sports Network) - The San Francisco Giants aim for a series split with the NL West-rival San Diego Padres tonight in the finale of a four-game set at AT&T Park.

The defending World Series champions ended a three-game losing streak with Wednesday's 6-5 win in 14 innings thanks to Nate Schierholtz's home run leading off the bottom of the 14th. Schierholtz homered twice and finished with three hits and three RBI, while Pablo Sandoval drove in three runs and Andres Torres ended with three hits for the Giants, who won for only the third time in their last eight games.

"It's hard to have a better game than what Nate did tonight," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 17 games and reliever Javier Lopez struck out three over two scoreless innings of relief for the win. Madison Bumgarner pitched the first six innings and allowed five runs and nine hits in the no-decision.

San Francisco will host the New York Mets for three games after this set.

Barry Zito gets the nod for the Giants tonight and has won two straight starts. He threw six shutout innings in a 15-3 blowout of the Detroit Tigers on Saturday to run his 2011 mark to 2-1 in five starts with a 3.81 ERA. The left-hander and 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner hasn't had much success against San Diego in his career, going 3-8 with a 4.38 ERA in 18 games (17 starts).

The Padres have still won 10 of their last 14 games and fell to 3-3 on a 10- game road trip last night.

Pat Neshek served up the game-winning homer to Schierholtz and was saddled with the loss, while starter Dustin Moseley struck out nine batters and yielded four runs over 7 1/3 innings.

Ryan Ludwick knocked in two runs, while Chris Denorfia, Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson each finished with two hits and a run scored for the Padres, who will close out their road trip with three games in Los Angeles.

"We couldn't get anything going," Padres manager Bud Black said. "That was two good bullpens going at it."

Cory Luebke will take the mound for Black tonight and is 2-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 31 games (2 starts). He tossed six scoreless innings and fanned seven batters in a 1-0 win at SEattle on Saturday and will take on the Giants for just the second time in his career.

Luebke, a lefty, pitched one-third of an inning of relief in an 8-4 loss to the Giants back on April 6.

San Diego leads the 2011 season series with San Francisco, 3-2.






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