Giants try to keep pace in playoff race vs. D-backs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(SportsNetwork.com) - The San Francisco Giants have a good chance at keeping pace with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West with Madison Bumgarner set to take the mound Wednesday in the finale of a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Giants are three games behind the Dodgers for the division lead and have won Bumgarner's last five starts, with the left-hander going 5-0 with a 1.80 earned run average in that time. Bumgarner provided seven shutout innings in Friday's 9-0 win over Los Angeles and struck out nine to reach the 200-mark.
Bumgarner is 18-9 with a 2.91 ERA in 31 starts and is tied with two other pitchers (Johnny Cueto, Adam Wainwright) for second in the majors in wins. Clayton Kershaw leads the majors with 19 victories.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}San Francisco is 12-4 in Bumgarner's 16 road starts and he is 11-3 with a 2.00 earned run average as the visitor. The left-hander has faced the Diamondbacks three times this season and is 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA. In 17 career games (16 starts) against Arizona, Bumgarner has a 6-4 record to go along with a 2.68 ERA.
The 18 wins for Bumgarner are the most by a Giants pitcher since Shawn Estes won 19 games back in 1997.
Bumgarner will follow a superb outing by Jake Peavy in Tuesday's 2-1 victory and the right-hander limited the D-backs to a run and five hits in 7 2/3 innings. Peavy fanned four and walked one for the Giants, who ended a three- game slide and won for the 14th time in the past 20 tries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I feel very blessed to feel healthy and go out there and be a contributing factor to a team that's fighting for our lives every day," Peavy said.
Buster Posey homered and both Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford added two hits for the NL wild card-leading Giants, who are 58-23 when hitting at least one homer this season.
Arizona was aiming for its fourth straight win last night and wasted a solid performance from Josh Collmenter. Collmenter was touched for just a pair of runs in eight innings to absorb the hard-luck loss. He talked about the home run by Posey in the fourth inning.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Up and down, soft and hard, it doesn't matter. He seems to get the bat on it," Collmenter said of the All-Star Posey.
Collmenter was the victim of a Giants club that improved to 61-17 when scoring the game's first run.
A.J. Pollock knocked in Arizona's only run with an RBI single in the sixth inning and Ender Inciarte recorded a pair of hits.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After this series with San Francisco, the D-backs, who have lost eight of 11 games, will visit Colorado and Minnesota. They are 5-3 in last eight at Chase Field.
Andrew Chafin will toe the rubber Wednesday for the D-backs and is replacing Randall Delgado in the rotation. Chafin made his major league debut in a 1-0 win at Cleveland on Aug. 13 and allowed just three hits in five scoreless innings. He struck out three and walked two.
Chafin, a left-hander, was recalled from Triple-A Reno this week and went 9-7 with a 4.08 ERA in 26 games (25 starts) at Double-A Mobile and Reno.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Arizona starting pitchers have allowed three runs or fewer in 17 of their last 19 starts.
The Giants have defeated the D-backs 17 times in the previous 24 games at Chase Field and have won six straight series in the desert. They have not lost a series in Arizona since April 6-8, 2012.
San Francisco is 12-6 overall against Arizona this season.