The visiting San Francisco Giants will attempt to secure a series win over the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night at 7:10 PM ET. The Giants took the first two games of the four-game series.
The Reds are -120 baseball betting lines favorites while the Giants pay +100. The over/under is 8 runs.
After heating up at the end of April through the month of May, the Cincinnati Reds (33-26, 19-13 home) are 3-4 in June. They currently share first place in the NL Central with St. Louis, who will be playing Los Angeles later in the evening.
The St. Louis-LA game will have implications for the San Francisco Giants (32-25, 13-14 away). The Giants, winners of five of the last six, trail LA by two games in the NL West. A win Wednesday night over Cincinnati would bring them one step closer to their fifth sweep of the season.
The matchup between Cincinnati and San Francisco is interesting given their specific strengths and weaknesses. Cincinnati leads the NL in runs scored with 295 while San Francisco is near the bottom of the league with 239. On the other hand, San Francisco is one of the league’s top pitching teams. They are currently third in the NL with a 3.30 team ERA, while Cincinnati is in twelfth with a 4.49 ERA.
Cincinnati will hand the ball to Aaron Harang (4-5, 5.43 ERA). The right-hander is 4-6 with a 3.62 ERA in 12 career starts against the Giants but was 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in two matchups last season. He is coming off of a start in which he threw 98 pitches in four innings while giving up two earned runs in a no decision effort.
The Giants are hoping Jonathan Sanchez (4-4, 2.63 ERA) can lead them to their fourth consecutive win. The left-hander started the season by going winless in his first five starts, but has since gone 0-2 in two starts while giving up one earned run and seven hits in 11 1/3 innings. He has made two starts against the Reds, both prior to 2008. Both starts yielded wins for Sanchez while he also posed a 1.32 ERA.
