The San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds are playing on the MLB afternoon schedule on Thursday and the game comes live from Great American Ballpark and is streaming from MLB.com and starts at 12:35 pm ET and has Madison Bumgarner against Mike Leake in the pitching matchup for the NL game.
The Giants come into the game playing very well and they have been dealing with injuries in the pitching rotation all season and have continued to stay in first place in their division and they could be even better once Matt Cain returns. Bumgarner has pitched very well for the team, as he did not lose in the month of May and ended up winning pitcher of the month and now he looks to make his first start in June just as good against the Reds. Bumgarner ended up 5-0 in the month and he was excellent over those six starts, getting over 40 strikeouts and putting up a 2.08 ERA during that time.
Bumgarner is now 7-3 on the season with a 2.85 ERA and he goes up against Leake, who is 3-4 with a 2.92 ERA on the season. Leake has been pitching very well too and he comes in with a nice ERA and the Giants come in after winning against the Reds and they got a save from Sergio Romo for his 18th of the season and he has continued pitching very well since taking over for Brian Wilson, while Ryan Vogelsong got the win for SF. The team starts a series next with the NY Mets and that will see Matt Cain returning to the rotation.
The Giants have returned to the World Series form they had a couple years ago and after missing the playoffs last season they look poised to return. The Giants are now 38-21 on the season and they are first in the division out west and the win against the Reds snapped a four game streak for the team. The Giants come into the game ranked eighth in runs and 19th in batting average and the team is also ninth in slugging percentage. The pitching has been very good and the team is third in ERA this season and fifth in BAA while the WHIP is second in the league.
The Reds come into the game after losing to the Giants and they next start a series against the Phillies and that has Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto going at it and Cueto is coming in after a fantastic start to the season. The Reds have lost a ton of close games this season and Joey Votto has struggled and now the team has to find a way to pull out of the NL Central bottom after making the playoffs last season. The offense has struggled greatly and they are ranked in the bottom half of the league in most major categories.
