Fresh off a 5-4 home stand, the Giants begin a six game road trip in San Diego on Friday night.
The Giants will visit Petco Park for the first time this year, a venue that the team and fans alike have adopted as 'AT&T Park south'.
Home or road, San Francisco has embraced the chance to play the Padres recently, compiling an impressive 35-20 record against them since the start of the 2011 season.
San Francisco's previous series: Despite only scoring six runs in the series, the Giants came away with two wins against the rival Dodgers, squeaking out a couple of one-run victories.
San Francisco received a great performance from the pitching staff as a whole, and are now tied with LA atop the division with a 10-6 record.
San Diego's previous series: The Padres played host to Colorado, splitting a four game series with an even 12 runs apiece.
The offense was stifled in their two losses, getting shut down by Juan Nicasio and Franklin Morales, but managed to put up a combined nine runs and 15 hits in their two victories.
San Diego is currently in 4th place with a 7-9 record.
Giants' probable starters: Matt Cain (4/18), Tim Hudson (4/19), Tim Lincecum (4/20)
Padres' probable starters: Tyson Ross (4/18), Eric Stults (4/19), Robbie Erlin (4/20)
Three things to know for the series:
1) Home away from home for Giants: Last year the Giants went 4-6 in San Diego, their first losing record there since 2010.
Prior to that, the Giants had played extremely well at Petco Park, posting a 12-6 record in 2011-12.
That strong play has been supported by a few players who clearly love hitting in San Diego, namely: Posey, Sandoval and Pence.
Posey is sporting a .389 career average with five home runs and 22 RBI's in 24 games at Petco.
Sandoval has a .310 average and 10 home runs in his career in San Diego.
Pence's lifetime numbers at Petco Park are weighed down by some struggles early in his career, but over the last two seasons he has four home runs and 20 RBI's in just 20 games.
With a pair of lefties taking the mound on Saturday and Sunday, look for this trio to send a few baseballs into the left field seats and help carry the offense this weekend.
2) Lincecum returns to Petco Park: Last summer Lincecum fired a no-hitter against the Padres, striking out 13 hitters in the process – the highlight of an otherwise disappointing season for the right-hander.
Although Lincecum has since made a start at Petco Park (giving up five runs in 5.2 innings last September), he will take the mound trying to build on his lifetime success in San Diego.
Last year's no-hitter is obviously the peak of his success to date, but Lincecum has fared very well at Petco Park in his career.
With a 7-3 record and a 2.75 ERA in 14 career starts, Lincecum is yet another Giant who has enjoyed his opportunities in San Diego.
He has a good chance to post another strong start on Sunday, as no Padre hitter has standout numbers against him.
Chase Headley has the most note-able stat line, hitting .273 with four home runs.
Seth Smith is the only other Padre with an average over .250 against Lincecum (excluding Jedd Gyorko who has just nine plate appearances against him to date).
3) Cold bats for San Diego: While the Padres struggling to score runs isn't a total surprise, it is something to take note of – if only because it represents a break for the Giants pitching staff.
San Francisco has played their first 16 games against three of the top seven offenses in the National League (Arizona, Los Angeles, Colorado) and still managed to post a 10-6 record.
San Diego comes into the series scoring just 2.9 runs per game, tied with Houston for the lowest total in all of baseball.
In fact, the Padres have hit just eight home runs as a team this year – in contrast, Brandon Belt has five by himself.
Granted, San Diego isn't built to win games with offense – especially at Petco Park – but their offensive production so far has been underwhelming, even for the Padres' standards.
This weekend presents a nice opportunity for Cain, Hudson and Lincecum to build upon their previous strong starts against a softer lineup this time around.
Final Note: The Padres recently signed second baseman Jedd Gyorko to a five year, $35 million extension, continuing the league-wide trend of locking up young players well before they hit free agency.
Gyorko's contract is the third-largest ever for a player with less than one year of service time at the major league level.
Only Atlanta's Andrelton Simmons (seven years, $58 million) and Milwaukee's Ryan Braun (eight years, $45 million) made more for a contract signed under that scenario.
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