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Pregame notes: Giants prepped to face teenage phenom

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OOoohrias


SAN FRANCISCO — Starting with the biggest, most gut-wrenching story of the day, the Giants will hold a moment of silence before Sunday’s game because of this morning’s shooting in Orlando. Bruce Bochy could only shake his head when recalling the news with reporters earlier in the day. A horribly sad day, and no story from AT&T Park this evening will eclipse what transpired this morning.

But there is a game that will be played, and a night after the Giants’ (37-26) 10th-inning comeback on the Dodgers (33-30), they’ll send Jake Peavy (2-6, 6.41 ERA) against 19-year-old wunderkind Julio Urias (0-1, 6.94 ERA) to try for a series win (and career win No. 150 for Peavy). As the basic pitching metrics would indicate, Urias’ long-awaited debut hasn’t gone as planned. But he’s coming his best start out of the three he’s made, striking out seven in four innings against the Rockies on Tuesday. He’s held left-handed hitters to a .154 average this season, and the Giants are starting five against Urias. The Dodgers have him on pretty strict pitch counts (His 86 pitches last start were the most he’s thrown), so the Giants will likely see at least a few innings thrown by L.A.’s bullpen.

Getting on with Bochy’s updates, Matt Cain tested his hamstring and is officially cleared to start Monday’s game against the Brewers. That once again makes Albert Suarez available out of the bullpen, which he was last night, and ended up as the only reliever not to pitch in the 10-inning, nine-pitcher affair. Despite the high volume of pitchers used, Bochy guessed they were all available to pitch again tonight. That makes sense, given that Cory Gearrin was the only reliever to throw more than an inning. It didn’t help that Jeff Samardzija endured his shortest outing of the season, but Bochy said the Giants’ right-hander found a tweak in his delivery. After starting the year 7-2 with a 2.54 ERA, he’s struggled in his last three starts to the tune of a 7.36 ERA in only 14.2 innings.

Angel Pagan will play seven innings with Triple-A Sacramento tonight, and if all goes well he’ll rejoin the Giants for Wednesday’s game. He went 1-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts in his first game with the Rivercats.

Lastly, the Sunday Night Baseball folks have a pretty sweet view to call tonight’s game. Last week in St. Louis, they broadcast from the left-field bleachers.

Giants lineup against Julio Urias

CF – Denard Span

2B – Joe Panik

1B – Brandon Belt

C – Buster Posey

3B – Matt Duffy

SS – Brandon Crawford

LF – Mac Williamson

RF – Gregor Blanco

RHP – Jake Peavy

Dodgers lineup against Jake Peavy

2B – Chase Utley

SS – Corey Seager

3B – Justin Turner

1B – Adrian Gonzalez

RF – Trayce Thompson

CF – Joc Pederson

LF – Howie Kendrik

C – A.J. Ellis

LHP – Julio Urias