The San Francisco Giants are losing pace in the National League wild card race while the Chicago Cubs are once again trying to gain steam. The Cubs are 8-2 in their last 10 games while the Giants are 4-6 sitting 3.5 games back from the West division race. The Cubs showed that good record when they beat the Giants 7-3 on Friday by scoring five runs in the fifth inning. Jon Lester kept the momentum by pitching seven innings and only giving up two runs. Now San Francisco will try and bounce back on Saturday.
The Giants are simply hitting a rough patch as they continue on in the season. San Francisco still remains one of the biggest threats to make a run in the final stretch of the year and they hope to prove that true with a win on Saturday. Matt Cain takes the mound being 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA on the season since returning from an injury. The pitcher is coming off a start where he allowed four runs on 10 hits to the Atlanta Braves while only recording one strike out. The pitcher's 10 hits were the most of the season and now Cain must try and bounce back against a thriving offense.
The Cubs will counter with Kyle Hendricks who is 5-5 with a 3.67 ERA on the season. His last start was a strong outing as he gave up just one run on four hits in seven innings. After struggling in a string of outings, Hendricks looked back to his dominating self. The Giants are confident the two rough starts were simply just flukes and the pitcher should be fine to make it the final stretch of the season.
The Cubs have been riding on the success of rookie Kyle Schwarber who continues to dominate at the plate. He put up two hits and two RBIs in the win on Friday. He will be critical for the Cubs heading down the final stretch of the season. After a strong start, the team has cooled off heading into the postseason and must pick up the momentum to stay on top.
