The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres are playing live on the MLB baseball schedule on Thursday and the game from Petco Park starts at 6:40 pm ET as the teams open their second series of the season and the pitching matchup has Ian Kennedy against Tim Hudson for this NL West division showdown early in the year.
The Giants come into the game at 2-1 on the season and the Padres are 1-2 and San Diego was one of the most active this year in adding player. The Padres are having their home opener after starting off on the road and they have new players like Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel and Wil Myers to show off to the home fans. The teams play a four game set and they will meet again in May.
Matt Cain and Brandon Belt are dealing with injuries for the Giants and Cain is hoping to come back by Sunday. The Giants come in after getting a win against the Diamondbacks to open the season and they also won the closing game of the series while losing the second matchup. Giants pitcher Chris Heston pitched six innings to get the Giants the win against the Diamondbacks and he will have to keep it up with the injuries for San Fran.
Ryan Vogelsong had a rough outing and gave up some home runs and now the World Series champs will hit the road again and they still have the home opener to come. Matt Kemp got off to a good start for the Padres and now the team is hoping he can do that again. AJ Preller was not afraid to make moves this offseason and now he is hoping that pays off with some playoff baseball. The team just added Kimbrel and they also added Kemp, Upton, Wil Myers, Will Middlebrooks, Derek Norris and James Shields this offseason.
The Giants will be one of the favorites in the division with the Dodgers, but they are dealing with injuries. Belt has avoided the DL, but he is banged up, while Jake Peavy is also dealing with a back issue. Cain is looking to come back, but he may need time to get things going and that could be huge for the Giants as they try and start off the season well. Kennedy will get the ball for the Padres and the Giants need Hudson to be sharp.
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