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Yankees host struggling Giants Friday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 7/22/2016  at  12:07:00 PM
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SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (57-38)

at NEW YORK YANKEES (48-47)

First pitch: Friday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: San Francisco -115, New York +105, Total: 7.0

The Giants will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak when they face the Yankees on Friday.

San Francisco has World Series aspirations and those are not looking particularly great at the moment. The Giants are struggling mightily right now, as they have lost five straight games coming into this meeting with the Yankees. The main issue with this team has been its hitting. San Francisco has gotten five or less hits in three of the past five games and the team will need to figure out a way to get it done offensively against New York. The Yankees, meanwhile, are playing pretty well coming into this one. They are coming off of a 4-1 loss to the Orioles, but they won their previous four games. The starting pitching has been outstanding for New York, as the team has allowed a total of seven runs over the past five contests. The starters in this big Friday matchup are set to be LHP Madison Bumgarner (10-5, 2.12 ERA, 155 K) for the Giants and RHP Masahiro Tanaka (7-2, 3.15 ERA, 100 K) for the Yankees. It’s definitely worth noting that Bumgarner is 25-5 against the money line as a road favorite of -110 or higher over the past two seasons with San Francisco. 3B Chase Headley (Personal) will be joining the Yankees tonight after dealing with an illness that his son was getting over.

Madison Bumgarner is coming off of a rough start against the Padres, allowing four earned runs on seven hits in just six innings of work. The lefty superstar is usually good for at least seven or so innings and it’s important that he works deep into this one against the Yankees on Friday. One thing he will need to do is avoid making mistakes high in the zone. Bumgarner has allowed two homers in two of the past four games and the Yankees will surely make him pay for any costly mistakes on Friday. Not many Giants players have ever gotten to face Tanaka, but two guys to keep an eye on in this game are C Buster Posey (.286, 12 HR, 44 RBI) and SS Brandon Crawford (.276, 9 HR, 61 RBI). Both guys are absolutely tremendous hitters and the Giants will be counting on them for some type of production on Friday. Posey, however, happens to be just 1-for-11 over the past three games, so it’s important that he finds a way to break out of his slump coming into this one.

Masahiro Tanaka is coming off of a brilliant start against the Red Sox, allowing just one earned run in six innings of work. Tanaka struck out seven batters in that game and walked just one. He’ll be hoping for a similar performance this time out. He has, however, been extremely inconsistent this season and is capable of a very poor performance on any given outing. Offensively, the return of 3B Chase Headley (.251, 9 HR, 30 RBI) could be huge for the Yankees in this one. He has hit Bumgarner very well in his career, going 10-for-33 with two doubles, three homers and 12 RBI against him. If he could come through in this game then the Yankees might be able to win this one. 2B Starlin Castro (.259, 11 HR, 37 RBI) has also been excellent against Bumgarner, going 11-for-26 with two doubles and two RBI against him in his career. His experience against him in the National League could end up helping him out greatly on Friday.


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