Giants aim to pitch themselves to sweep of Padres

(SportsNetwork.com) - Pitching has been key to a five-game winning streak for the San Francisco Giants and they'll shoot for a three-game sweep Wednesday afternoon versus the San Diego Padres.

The Giants have posted three straight shutout victories and handed the Padres a 6-0 defeat Tuesday at AT&T Park behind Ryan Vogelsong's seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball. He struck out four and walked two for his first win of the season.

"He had good stuff... He did a terrific job," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Vogelsong. "He pounded the strike zone very well. That's vintage (Vogelsong)."

Vogelsong joined starters Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson as winners during this victory streak.

Joe Panik homered, Brandon Crawford went 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Matt Duffy added two hits with an RBI for the Giants, who have outscored their opponents 13-0 in the past three games.

San Francisco will host the Miami Marlins for four games next and has a 9-6 record in the Bay Area. The Giants have won eight in a row at home.

Chris Heston looks to keep the Giants' win streak intact when he toes the rubber Wednesday. Heston is 2-2 with a 2.51 earned run average in five starts and did not record a decision in a 3-2 win over the LA Angels on Friday, as he held the visitors to a run over 6 1/3 innings.

Heston, who bounced back from a rough start at Colorado and allowed six runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 frames, faced the Padres just once in his career and lasted four innings, charged with three runs and six hits.

The Padres have dropped back-to-back games since winning three straight and hope to salvage the finale of this series.

Andrew Cashner continued to struggle on the mound and fell to 1-5 after he surrendered six runs, four of which were earned, and seven hits across six innings. He fanned three batters and walked three.

"I left a lot of balls over the middle of the plate and didn't really give our offense a chance tonight," Cashner said. "I hung a lot of sliders and my fastball was down the middle."

Cory Spangenberg, Yangervis Solarte, Justin Upton and Jedd Gyorko all singled for the Padres, who have lost four in a row on the road and nine of 13 overall. San Diego still has Arizona and Seattle to visit on this road trip.

The Padres will send Ian Kennedy to the mound Wednesday to play stopper and he is 1-1 with a 7.11 earned run average in three starts. Kennedy won for the first time this season in a 14-3 decision over the Rockies and yielded a pair of runs in six innings, striking out six and walking two.

It was a far better performance for Kennedy, who was tagged for eight runs in 4 1/3 innings of an 11-8 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 25. The right-hander lasted only 2 1/3 innings versus San Francisco in his season debut on April 9 and left the game with a hamstring injury.

In 21 career starts against the NL West-rival Giants, Kennedy is 9-4 with a 2.48 ERA.

San Diego took three of four from the Giants in early April.