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Giants hope to end road woes vs. Brewers

Sep 22, 2006 - 1:40 PM San Francisco (75-77) at Milwaukee (70-83) 8:05 pm EDT

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) - The San Francisco Giants close out the season with their biggest rival. But that series likely will be meaningless for them if they continue to stumble on the road.

The Giants continue a four-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night at Miller Park as time continues to run out on their playoff hopes.

When San Francisco began this 10-game trip, it was 2 1/2 games behind San Diego for the National League wild card lead and it appeared that next weekend's three-game series vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers would have huge implications.

But the Giants started the trip with a 14-4 loss in St. Louis and have dropped four of five, allowing 61 runs in those losses. On Thursday, Matt Morris allowed nine runs in 4 1/3 innings of a 9-4 loss and San Francisco dropped 4 1/2 games behind Los Angeles in the wild card chase.

Jonathan Sanchez (3-0, 3.38 ERA) will make his third career start for San Francisco. He was slated to start Sunday in St. Louis but that game was rained out.

As a starter Sanchez is 1-0 with a 4.35 ERA.

Milwaukee has won three of four, and a former Giant helped them in Thursday's victory. David Bell, who played with San Francisco's pennant-winning team in 2002, drove in three runs in support of 7 1/3 solid innings from Dave Bush.

Doug Davis (10-11, 4.87), who has lost five of his last six starts, takes the hill for the Brewers. Since throwing a four-hitter against Los Angeles on September 5, Davis has allowed a combined six runs and nine hits in losses to Pittsburgh and Washington.