San Francisco at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has to be confident here after sweeping the Giants at AT&T, while outscoring them 26-10 in the process. They handled San Francisco on the road, and they can definitely handle them here at home. The Giants, a terrible road team, will be without Barry Bonds today. That's not good for an offense that scores 4-runs per game (RPG) against lefties and is averaging 3.6-rpg over their last seven games. Paul Maholm starts for Pittsburgh and a win keeps him from becoming the NL's first 15-game loser. He'll be facing Matt Cain who has been quite good this season although the Giants are 5-18 with him starting this season. That record tells you what kind of run support he's getting. San Francisco is just 11-22 this season on the road at -125 to +125 and 3-9 so far in August. We'll fade the Bonds-less Giants here in game one.