Giants vs. Astros, Series Preview: Giants Seek Revenge On Visiting Astros

Last week the San Francisco Giants were down in Houston, getting beat by the Astros as Minute Maid Park in two of the three game set. Now with the tables turned the Giants will look to return the favor on the shores of McCovey Cove, starting Thursday night. 

The Giants narrowly squeaked out a victory over the Padres Wednesday night to keep themselves within striking distance of the Diamondbacks, and are going to need to put together a good series against Houston if they want to stay close. The 'stros have lost their last four in a row, including the last meeting of their series with the Giants, but have scored at least four runs in all of those games; meaning the Giants offense is hopefully ready to do some work, and will definitely need to improve on their .168 batting average with RISP.

The return of Carlos Beltran is both awesome and scary at the same time because he is playing through pain in his hand, and you never know when a more serious injury might occur. But he's basically being rented by the Black and Orange, so they probably feel like they'll need to squeeze every bit of production out of him as possible. And despite going 0-3 against the Pads on Wednesday Pablo Sandoval continues to rake, batting .309 since the All-Star break with seven dingers and 21 RBI.

San Francisco will send out the quartet of Ryan Vogelsong, Madison Bumgarner, Dan Runzler and Matt Cain for this four game series, as the Astros send out Henry Sosa (on three days rest) J.A. Happ, Brett Myers and Bud Norris. After this series with the Astros the Giants will host the Cubs, then it will be NL West opponents for the entire month of September, so get ready for a wild ride down the stretch.