Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford returns to the lineup Saturday after missing three games with a pair of sprained fingers. He sustained the injury sliding into second base during a stolen attempt on Tuesday, a 5-4 win against San Diego. The spot in the lineup is not guaranteed, as Hank Schulman reports that he could be scratched if batting practice doesn’t go well. Joaquin Arias would most likely fill in, having started the last three games at short.
Crawford will try to help the Giants stop a nasty streak. After taking the first two of the the four-game series, the Marlins have now won 9 straight games in AT&T Park. This is the longest current streak of any team against the Giants, and especially painful against a team that has lost 25 more games than it has won this season.
Since the start of the 2012 season the Marlins have won 93 games, which is more than just the Cubs (91) and Astros (83) . Combine that with the Giants 71-47 record at home in the same time period and it’s hard to fathom a streak like this.
Here’s the lineup against RHP Jacob Turner (1-0, 2.18 ERA):
LF Blanco
2B Scutaro
C Posey
RF Pence
1B Belt
SS Crawford
CF Perez
3B Noonan
LHP Zito (4-5, 4.67 ERA)