Madison Bumgarner takes the mound for the first time since helping San Francisco clinch the NL West last weekend as the Giants continue a three-game series on Saturday night with the San Diego Padres.
Bumgarner beat these same Padres last Saturday, charged with three runs -- two earned -- on five hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six. He gave up a first-inning run on a grounder that came right after an error and then saw his outing end after serving up a two-run homer to Yonder Alonso.
San Francisco, though, claimed an 8-4 victory to win the division for the second time in three years. The 2010 NL West champs went on to beat the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
The left-handed Bumgarner is looking to get the Giants to the Fall Classic again this year and is 16-10 with a 3.26 earned run average in 31 starts. He has posted the most wins in a season by a Giants southpaw since Kirk Rueter also won 16 games in 1998.
The 23-year-old is 4-2 with a 3.17 ERA lifetime versus the Padres in 12 games, all but one of those starts.
Eric Stults hopes to continue his solid campaign for the Padres this season and beat the Giants a day after their division-clinching win. The veteran lefty yielded three runs on seven hits and a walk in six-plus innings.
Stults, 32, is 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA in 17 games with the Padres this season, including 13 starts, and has won six of his last seven decisions. He improved to 3-2 lifetime versus the Giants in 10 games (8 starts) with a 4.76 ERA.
San Francisco continued to build momentum for the postseason in Friday's opener, winning for the ninth time in 11 games with a 3-1 decision. Ryan Vogelsong earned the win with six innings of one-run ball.
Vogelsong, who was 3-4 with an 8.83 ERA over his last eight starts coming in, struck out four, scattered five hits, gave up one unearned run and walked one.
"At this point I'm just trying to stay on a good roll here going into the postseason," said Vogelsong.
San Francisco is three games behind the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League.
Pablo Sandoval smacked a two-run double in the victory.
Andrew Werner surrendered three runs on eight hits and a walk over 4 2/3 frames for San Diego, which has dropped three straight and seven of its last 10 contests.
San Diego managed one run on seven hits.
"I thought his stuff was probably as crisp as we've seen it," Padres manager Bud Black said of Vogelsong.
The Giants have won 17 of their last 23 versus the Padres, winning five of seven in San Diego this season.
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