San Francisco

The Giants hosted the D'backs last weekend and all three games ended in 2-0 scores. The Giants won twice, with last year's Cy Young award wineer, Tim Lincecum, being San Fran's pitcher in the one loss. Lincecum has yet to win in three starts in 2009 (he's 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA with the Giants going 1-2), but he was outstanding against the D'backs last Saturday, allowing only five hits with a career high-tying 13 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings. Arizona's Doug Davis is Lincecum's mound opponent tonight, as he was last Saturday. Davis is 1-2 with a 2.57 ERA in three starts in '09, his third season with the D'backs. The lefty was 13-12 with a 4.25 ERA in 33 starts in 2007, as the D'backs went 20-13 (plus-$971) in his starts. He fought back from cancer last year to make 26 starts but was only 6-8 (4.32 ERA), as the team went just 11-15 (minus-$393) in his starts. Lincecum is coming off a Cy Young season, in which he was 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA, striking out 265 while walking just 84 in 34 appearances (33 starts). The Giants were 21-12 (.636) in those starts, while going a pathetic 51-78 (.395) with some other pitcher in the starting role. Lincecum is 3-1 with an excellent 1.89 ERA in seven career starts vs Arizona but the Giants are just 3-4 in those games. The Giants have yet to win away from home TY (0-6 and minus-$615 vs the moneyline) but I'm siding with Lincecum in this quick turnaround. The D'backs have opened just 6-9 in 2009, despite having played 12 of their first 15 games here in Chase Field. Arizona is batting just .226 as a team (last in all of MLB) and with only 54 runs scored (3.6 per), ranks near the bottom of MLB in that category as well. The D'backs have been held to two or fewer runs nine times, winning only two of those games. Yes, the Giants are averaging just 3.29 RPG on the year themselves, including only 2.33 RPG in going winless on the road, but the Giants are much more likely to get a "repeat performance" from Lincecum (from last Saturday's matchup), than the D'backs are from Davis. The Giants have to win a road game sometime, so why not tonight?