Giants' Samardzija tries to shake off rough May vs. Orioles

The San Francisco Giants will turn to veteran right-hander Jeff Samardzija, looking for strong back-to-back starts in Sunday's series finale at Baltimore.

The Giants had gone 40 straight games without having a starter go seven innings before rookie Shaun Anderson did it in Saturday's 8-2 victory over the Orioles. Anderson won his first game in his fourth start in the major leagues.

Samardzija (2-4, 3.83 ERA) will face Baltimore's Gabriel Ynoa (0-1, 5.40). Samardzija is coming off a rough month in which he went 0-3 with a 5.55 ERA in five starts, losing his last three outings.

Samardzija has a career record of 0-1 with a 5.49 ERA in four appearance, including three starts, against the Orioles.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said on MLB.com that starter Drew Pomeranz's next turn in the rotation is going to be skipped thanks to an off day, which could line up Anderson to pitch in Thursday's series finale at the New York Mets.

"I don't know what we're going to do past New York right now," Bochy said. "We're talking about it."

The site also reported that pitching coach Curt Young had surgery on his right knee Friday, with Matt Herges stepping in as the acting pitching coach. Also, the Giants have named Steve Kline, who is their Triple-A pitching coach, to be the interim bullpen coach.

San Francisco rookie Mike Yastrzemski has continued his hot hitting in the series. He homered and tripled in Friday's loss before going 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI on Saturday. He is former Baltimore minor leaguer.

This will be Ynoa's second start since the Orioles moved Dan Straily out of the rotation and back to the bullpen. Ynoa threw four innings in his first start, which came Monday against the Tigers. He gave up two runs in a 5-3 win.

This will be Ynoa's first career appearance against the Giants.

Straily came in after Ynoa in the Detroit game and gave the Orioles four innings of one-run relief in one of his best outings this season. The two might pair up again on Sunday, although Straily did warm up late in Saturday's game.

Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde is expected to return Sunday. He missed Saturday's game to attend the high school graduation of his stepdaughter in Illinois.

Tim Cossins, field coordinator and catching instructor, took over for Hyde on Saturday and said after the game he enjoyed the experience but not the loss.

One thing the Orioles certainly did like was seeing Renato Nunez hit his eighth homer in the past 12 games. Nunez started the season well before falling into a slump, and he's now come out of that in a big way in the past two weeks.

Nunez has 15 homers and 35 RBI with a .249 batting average. He also homered in Friday's win.

"He's on fire," Cossins said after Saturday's game. "He went from a little bit of a downturn and has regrouped. He's swinging the bat really well."

--Field Level Media