Braves, Giants aim to snap skids

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two teams shackled with losing streaks but generally feeling pretty good about their recent play knock heads Friday night when the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants open a three-game series at AT&T Park.

Braves left-hander Jaime Garcia, who will be making his major-league-leading seventh road start, and Giants righty Matt Cain, who has been about as good as they come in his four home outings, will duel in the series opener.

The Braves are coming off a homestand in which they won five of the first seven games before taking consecutive losses against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Pretty good homestand," Braves left fielder Matt Kemp said. "You wish we would have ended it a little bit better, but we've been playing some pretty good baseball. Hopefully we can take it on the road and keep it going."

Matt Adams, acquired last Saturday in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, contributed to Atlanta's upswing. He has belted two home runs, a triple and two doubles among seven hits in his first 22 at-bats (.318) for the Braves.

Garcia pitched once on the homestand, and while he saw his record fall to 1/3 with a 4.07 ERA, he threw arguably his best game of the season. The veteran allowed just three runs (one earned) in eight innings in a 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.

It was just Garcia's second home start of the season. The other six have come on the road, and the Braves have won three times in those outings.

Acquired over the offseason from the Cardinals, Garcia is no stranger to AT&T Park, where he has gone 2-1 with a 3.25 ERA in five games (including four starts). Overall, he is 3-1 with a 2.88 ERA against the Giants in eight career games (seven starts).

When last seen in San Francisco last September as a member of the Cardinals, Garcia struck out five in two innings of relief but also surrendered a two-run homer to Giants catcher Buster Posey.

Posey went hitless Thursday in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs, the Giants' third straight defeat after they won eight of their previous 10 games.

San Francisco went 3-4 on a trip to St. Louis and Chicago after gathering some momentum with a season-best, five-game winning streak during a 5-2 homestand.

Cain had a hand in that winning streak, limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run in 6 2/3 innings in an 8-4 win on May 15.

The win improved Cain's home record this season to 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in four starts. He begins play Friday with the fourth-best home ERA in the majors among pitchers with four or more starts.

In eight career starts vs. Atlanta, Cain is 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA.

When Giants starters look to their right in the series, it is very possible they will see a new third baseman. San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy left Chicago on Thursday wondering aloud about the possibility of returning prospect Christian Arroyo to Triple-A after seeing the rookie's batting average slide to .191.

"He knows the situation," Bochy said before the Thursday game, in which Arroyo went 0-for-3. "He's a tough kid. He wants to fight through this, and he's handling it well.

"I don't want to make any assumptions on what we're going to do. These are decisions that have to be made, and they aren't easy ones."