Madison Bumgarner will try to halt the San Francisco Giants' six-game losing streak on Thursday night when he starts the opener of a four-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Giants won three of four to start the season, picking up a series victory in Arizona from April 6-8, but haven't recorded a win since beating San Diego 1-0 in 10 innings on April 9. They lost the final three contests of that four- game set before getting swept in three games by the Colorado Rockies to begin this week.
San Francisco dropped a 4-2 decision in Wednesday night's finale to go winless to begin a 10-game homestand. Matt Duffy hit his first career homer, but Tim Lincecum allowed four runs -- three earned -- over five innings.
Lincecum's big mistake came early when Colorado's Nolan Arenado drilled an 0-2 changeup for a three-run homer in the first inning.
"It stayed up a little bit, that's all," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of the changeup. "He made two good pitches earlier.
Bumgarner will make his third start of the season and is 3-0 with a 2.30 earned run average over his last four starts against the Diamondbacks. That includes a victory on April 6 in Arizona as the left-hander gave up just a run over seven innings of work.
The 2014 World Series MVP wasn't as sharp this past Saturday in San Diego, tagged for five runs on 10 hits over just three innings of a loss. It marked Bumgarner's shortest start since 2011.
"I was a little off," Bumgarner said. "I was battling to put pitches where I wanted to and wasn't very effective."
The Diamondbacks counter with 22-year-old Archie Bradley, who again faces an ace in what will be just his second career start.
Bradley, ranked as Arizona's top prospect by MLB.com, made his major league debut last Saturday against Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but came out on top thanks to six scoreless innings of work.
The right-hander didn't dominate in the 6-0 win, but gave up only one hit in addition to four walks while striking out six over 112 pitches.
"I didn't want to get too high. I just wanted to stay calm and remember what we talked about in trying to get them out and just stay within myself," Bradley said.
Arizona has lost three of its past four and was topped 3-2 by the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer in the first inning, but Randall Delgado took the loss for giving up a two-out solo homer to the Padres' Justin Upton in the eighth inning.
"It was a little bit up," Delgado said. "It was a mistake and obviously I paid for it."
The Giants have won 11 of their past 14 versus the Diamondbacks.
[SportsNetwork.com]
