Giants look to end recent struggles vs. Padres

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Diego Padres will seek to continue their recent mastery of the San Francisco Giants when the clubs meet for a second time in their four-game series Friday night.

After taking two of three from the Giants in San Diego last week, the Padres also prevailed in the first game of the rematch series in San Francisco behind the power hitting of Hunter Renfroe and Cory Spangenberg on Thursday night.

In doing so, they spoiled the AT&T Park return of Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who hadn't pitched at home since separating his left shoulder in a dirt-bike accident in April.

Right-hander Trevor Cahill (4-3, 3.14 ERA) will try to follow in the footsteps of Jhoulys Chacin, who limited the Giants to two runs and four hits in six innings on Thursday.

Cahill had a similar outing -- one run in 6 2/3 innings -- in a 7-1 Padres win over the Giants on Sunday in San Diego.

The Padres have now beaten the Giants in 15 of their last 20 meetings.

San Diego manager Andy Green was happy his club was able to win the series opener in San Francisco while also getting the Giants ace out of the way at the same time.

"Nothing he does really shocks me or anybody in baseball," Green said of Bumgarner. "Even if it's not in midseason form, he's still not an easy draw."

Cahill has been a tough draw on the Giants. He is 7-5 with a 3.63 ERA in 17 games, including 14 starts, against the Giants in his career.

Denard Span and Eduardo Nunez combined for eight hits last weekend in the three-game series at San Diego, and they each had two hits in the Thursday loss.

"They've been doing a real good job of getting on base at the top of the lineup," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We need to do a better job getting better balance throughout the lineup."

The Giants will counter in Game 2 of the series with right-hander Jeff Samardzija (4-11, 4.86), who was on the losing end of the matchup with Cahill on Sunday. He allowed seven runs on nine hits in six innings.

Samardzija gave up home runs to Hector Sanchez and Cory Spangenberg in the defeat, which pushed him into a tie with Colorado's Tyler Chatwood for the most losses in the National League.

He has given up 10 homers in his past seven starts.

Spangenberg also connected Thursday against Bumgarner, a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the seventh inning to the farthest part of the ballpark. The ball cleared the wall just to the left of the 421-foot sign.

"I'm really impressed," Padres manager Andy Green, a former major league infielder, said of Spangenberg's homer. "That's a long way out there. It'd take me two times hitting it to get it out that far."

Samardzija is 7-3 with a 3.68 ERA in 14 games, including 12 starts, against the Padres in his career. Sanchez, a former Giants catcher, is 4-for-9 with five RBIs lifetime against Samardzija.