Saturday, June 9th

3:05 Texas @ San Francisco

San Francisco did not have a good night last night only able to produce 5 hits off of Matt Harrison.  It seems the San Francisco offense is a hit or miss on almost every occasion.  Texas took the first game of the series with an easy 5 – 0 victory.  Today we expect to see the Giants to tie up their series against Texas which will result in a rubber match tomorrow.

On the mound for Texas is Scott Feldman who has had a year to forget so far, posting and 0 – 4 record and a 7.01 ERA.  Feldman has only started 5 games this year and his longest outing was on May 29^th when he was only able to go 4 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs.  By far his worst outing was his last when he only went 1 2/3 innings giving up 8 earned runs to Oakland.  There are not a lot of positives to take out of his performances this year and especially his starts.  Texas as a whole has been on a little slide as of late as well with a 3 – 7 record in their last 10 games.   San Francisco marks the end of a grueling West coast trip that saw them losing the series at Anaheim to the Angels and breaking a 4 game series to the Oakland A’s. 

San Francisco will be putting Ryan Vogelsong on the mound tonight who was a true break out star last year.  He has been just as productive for the Giants this year with a 4 – 2 record and a stellar 2.38 ERA.  He has been even better as of late.  In his last 5 starts he has pitched 34 2/3 innings and only surrendering 6 runs for an ERA of 1.56.  Today will be a good match up for Vogelsong to see how he handles a Texas team that can put up runs at will it seems on some nights.  San Francisco is 9 – 3 in their last 12 games and trying to catch up to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West which they trail by four games coming into today.

San Francisco should be able to get back a win today at home against the Texas Rangers.  The fact that the Rangers have been in a bit of a struggle on this road trip and they are matched up against a strong Vogelsong should prove to be too much for the Rangers.  Expect Scott Feldman to have another early exit today which will force the Rangers to rely heavily on their bull pen.  Also, with the Texas Rangers on the end of their three series road trip expect lower than normal productivity out of them as they eye going back home to Texas. 

Projected score: Texas 2 – San Francisco 5

Pick: Decent Play San Francisco (-107)