Giants vs. Nationals MLB Schedule Preview: Holding On To NL West Lead

The San Francisco Giants maintained their NL West lead and furthered themselves from the now-fourth-place Colorado Rockies by taking two of three games in that series. Now, they'll continue their ten-game home streak by hosting a three-game set against the Washington Nationals. After a high-scoring series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants had a pretty low-key series against the Rockies, winning games with three and two runs, respectively.

Teams aren't having to blow out the Nationals to beat them, however, so if the Giants have the pitching they need, they should be in a good position to win the series. The Nationals are sitting at the bottom of the NL East, but they have been winning some games lately, splitting a four-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks (good for the Giants) and taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies before that. So they do have a little bit of momentum, and were winners in their last game, game four against the Diamondbacks.

While they don't necessary need to score twelve or even seven runs to best the Nationals like they did with the Cardinals, they'd still like to show that kind of fire, especially with the injuries throughout the team. Now they've lost Brandon Belt for a time on top of Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval, so things are really pushing it right now. At least they've got the top of the pitching order coming up, which is always a happy time for Giants fans ... pregame, at least.

Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain will take the mound for San Francisco, while Washington will send John Lannan, Jordan Zimmermann, and Yunesky Maya out there. Lincecum is fast-approaching 1,000 career strikeouts, but he'll likely be more focused on just beating the Nationals, which he's struggled to do at this point.