Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

For what it’s worth, the Giants have won two of their last three games, and they will take that bit of momentum with them as they head to Arizona.

There they will play a three-game weekend series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which starts Friday night at Chase Field.

While the Diamondbacks are in the middle of the pack, the Giants now sit in the National League West cellar, two games behind the four-place Colorado Rockies, as well as 9 ½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the division’s top spot.

The Giants will attempt to make up some ground in the division starting Friday night, as another guy trying to get things back on track, Jeff Samardzija (2-1, 3.51 ERA), takes the hill against Arizona righty Merrill Kelly (3-4, 4.70 ERA).

Samardzija appeared to be on the right path after shutting out the Dodgers over five solid innings while giving up only a pair of hits on Apr. 29. However, since then, he has had a pair of subpar outings – both against the Cincinnati Reds – giving up four runs and three runs over five and four innings, respectively.

Meanwhile, he gave up a season-high three home runs in a no-decision effort at Cincinnati on May 5.

Kelly has lost his last two outings, but his most recent defeat was more of a hard-luck one than anything else. He went seven strong and gave up three runs in a 6-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves last Saturday. It was major bounce-back from his previous start, during which he was bombed by the Tampa Bay Rays, giving up seven runs and going only four runs.

Madison Bumgarner (2-4, 4.04 ERA) is another looking to get some kind of consistency, and he will go on Saturday opposite Diamondbacks righty Zack Godley (1-3, 7.65 ERA).

He has gone seven innings twice – his season debut March 28 and then on Apr. 13 – but has not gone past six since, and he has yet to string together solid outings. Meanwhile, Godley has gone between starting and going to the bullpen, even picking up a save last Wednesday against Tampa Bay. In his previous outing on Tuesday, he went two innings and gave up three runs on three hits in a loss to Pittsburgh.