Game Preview: San Francisco Giants at Washington Nationals 6/2

The Giants are not playing very well on the road. They are 7-15 and haven't won a series on the road since early May against the rival Dodgers. This could be because in  every statistical category the Giants have worse road numbers than home numbers.

For example, at home the Giants are batting .275 while on the road they are only hitting .234. Or at home the Giants' pitchers have an ERA of 3.81 and on the road their ERA is 4.49.

The Giants look to improve these numbers as they begin a 10 game road trip with a three game series in our nation's capital against the Washington Nationals.

San Francisco (25-24) is coming of a dominating homestand in which they went 5-1 and swept the Atlanta Braves and took two of three from Albert Pujols and the Cardinals. They improved their home record to 18-9 and look to take their success on the road.

It has been a different story for the Nationals (13-36). Washington has lost 18 of their last 21 games and are currently on a six game losing streak. They have the worst record in the MLB and are 16 games out of first place in the NL East.

The pitching match-up tonight definitely favors the Giants.

Tim Lincecum (4-1 3.03 ERA) takes the hill for San Francisco looking for his fifth win of the season. In his last start Lincecum dominated the Braves. He went eight innings and allowed no runs while striking out eight.

For the Nationals, young gun Craig Stammen (0-1 5.56 ERA) will take the mound looking for his first career win in the big leagues. Stammen has only started two games and in both starts he has struggled. His last start was against the Mets and it wasn't good. He only last five innings an surrendered three runs on seven hits.

Three things to remember for tonight:

* Giants RP Jeremy Affeldt has not allowed a run in almost 11 innings of work.

* Aaron Rowand currently has an 11 game hitting streak.

* Tim Lincecum is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA lifetime against the Nationals.