VENUE: Chase Field
After consecutive seasons with more than 90 losses, the Arizona Diamondbacks are one victory away from clinching the NL West title.
The Diamondbacks have a chance to accomplish that feat and further damage the postseason hopes of the reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants on Friday night at Chase Field.
Prior to this season, Arizona (90-66) wasn't widely considered a playoff contender after losing 92 games in 2009 and 97 in 2010. However, the combination of solid starting pitching and consistent clutch hitting has the Diamondbacks one win away from the fifth division title in the 14-year history of the franchise.
"We can't celebrate until happens," center fielder Chris Young said. "If we can come into the Giants' series ready and playing good baseball, we should be able to do this."
Arizona can get it done Friday by beating San Francisco (84-72) for the sixth time in eight meetings.
"You don't want to beat around the bush too much, just go ahead and get it done," rookie pitcher Wade Miley said after earning the win in Arizona's 8-5 victory over Pittsburgh on Wednesday. "We've just got keep pushing, keep winning ball games and seal the deal."
Though the Giants' hopes of repeating as division champs are all but over, they also remain mathematically alive in the wild-card race where they are in third place, four games behind leader Atlanta with St. Louis to leapfrog. San Francisco has won nine of 11 overall, but both defeats came over the last three games at Los Angeles, including an 8-2 loss Thursday.
"We're still in there, I guess, but we've got to win from here on out and hope the other teams don't," losing pitcher Madison Bumgarner said.
The Diamondbacks hope Joe Saunders (12-12, 3.66 ERA) can help them sew up the division Friday and win his fourth consecutive start.
The left-hander allowed one run in 8 2-3 innings of a 5-1 win at San Diego on Sunday to improve 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA since he gave up four runs in 5 1-3 innings of a 6-2 loss at San Francisco on Sept. 2. Saunders is 0-3 with a 5.21 ERA against the Giants in 2011.
Arizona All-Star catcher Miguel Montero, who hit his career-high 18th homer Wednesday, is batting .353 with six home runs and 23 RBIs in his last 27 games. He's batted .310 (9 for 29) with a homer in his last eight games against San Francisco.
Montero is 8 for 33 (.242) but has two homers against right-hander Matt Cain (12-10, 2.86), who is likely to take the mound for the Giants in the opener instead of rookie Eric Surkamp. Manager Bruce Bochy could start Surkamp on Saturday after he decided to shuffle his rotation.
Cain, 4-1 with a 3.97 ERA against the Diamondbacks in 2011, will try for a fourth consecutive winning start at Chase Field. He's posted a 2.61 ERA while winning his last three there dating to 2010. Cain gave up five runs in five innings at Colorado on Sunday but still earned the win in a 12-5 victory.
Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who homered for the 23rd time and had two other hits Thursday, is batting .356 with four home runs and 19 RBIs in 26 career games at Arizona.
San Francisco has won four of six at Chase Field this season.
